Pregnant people are at higher risk of illness in extreme heat. Here’s how to stay safe

As temperatures broil the US, experts share ways to mitigate increased chances of heat illness and heatstroke

Millions of Americans are under a heat advisory as record temperatures scorch much of the country. Pregnant people are among the most at risk – they are more susceptible to heat exhaustion and other ailments. Extreme heat is associated with stillbirth, preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. “When we think of heat, a lot of us think of discomfort,” said Blair Wylie, an OB-GYN who leads Columbia University’s Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health. “For pregnant patients, not only is it uncomfortable, it’s actually risky.”

Public health experts and physicians explain the risks of extreme heat during pregnancy and share ways to stay safe.

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Caitlin Clark’s name has been used to push bigotry – and she finally pushed back | Arwa Mahdawi

Clark made a bit of a wishy-washy statement, but after the shrill rightwing complaints, she should be applauded for speaking up

You don’t need to know anything about basketball to have heard of Caitlin Clark. She’s a record-breaking superstar who has helped take women’s basketball to new heights. Unfortunately, she’s also been shoved into a starring role in the culture wars. An awful lot of conservative men, who don’t ordinarily give a damn about women’s sports, have decided that she provides a very convenient excuse for them to be racist and misogynistic on main. Although, to be fair, they don’t normally need an excuse.

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Pregnant women should be tested for diabetes far earlier, study suggests

Women should be tested for gestational diabetes before 14 weeks, say academics

Pregnant women should be tested for diabetes much earlier than the current practice of doing so between 24 and 28 weeks, according to research.

Gestational diabetes, a form of the condition that only develops in pregnancy, affects thousands of women in the UK and one in seven pregnancies worldwide. It is the most common medical pregnancy complication and occurs when a hormone made by the placenta stops the body from using insulin effectively, leading to elevated blood glucose levels.

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UK anti-abortion campaigners running against MPs who back decriminalisation

Seat of Labour’s Stella Creasy among those challenged by activists running as independents in the general election

Anti-abortion campaigners are running as independent candidates in the general election against prominent MPs seeking re-election who supported decriminalisation.

The seats of Labour’s Diana Johnson and Stella Creasy and Conservative Caroline Nokes are all being targeted by anti-abortion activists. The three proposed or supported recent amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill which would have stopped prosecutions for anyone ending a pregnancy in England and Wales.

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‘I felt entirely alone’: comedian Grace Campbell on the aftermath of her abortion

When Grace Campbell decided to terminate her pregnancy, she felt relief at being able to exercise a right so many women had fought for. But nothing prepared her for the depression that came after. Here, the comedian reflects on the physical and emotional toll

There it is,” the doctor said, without warning. I turned, the cold jelly sliding off my stomach, to face the screen he had swivelled towards me. There it is, he said, nonchalantly, like he was pointing at the Eiffel Tower as we walked along the Seine. There it is, like he’d found his car in a festival car park. There it is, as he showed me, apropos of nothing, the foetus I was about to abort.

In December last year, I was at home, stuck in a sour state of depression that no amount of brightly coloured vapes and episodes of Schitt’s Creek could remedy. After an intense seven weeks, post-abortion, the bleeding had finally stopped. But the persistent crying, self-hatred and grief followed me everywhere I went.

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Women give birth: how they do it is no one else’s business | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The Green party has backtracked on its ‘natural birth’ policy. Demonising C-sections harks back to the bad old days of ‘too posh to push’

Sometimes, when I’m reflecting on how far we’ve come since the 1990s, I think about the phrase “too posh to push”. How disgustingly, physiologically misogynistic that phrase is, and how cavalierly people just … said it, as though how a woman decides to give birth – through her vagina or from an incision in her abdomen – was a matter of public debate. Back then, it really was. The tabloids were full of speculation about whether female celebrities gave birth vaginally or not, and the general public adopted the catchphrase, feeding the (false) impression that many women were choosing to have caesarean sections simply for the sake of convenience.

I’d be shocked, these days, to hear someone roll that out. Yet myths about caesareans are still peddled. Take a policy from the Green party’s website, now hastily deleted after a deserved backlash: “We will work to reduce the number of interventions in childbirth, and change the culture of the NHS so that birth is treated as a normal and non-medical event.” C-sections were described as “expensive and, when not medically required, risky”.

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US maternal mortality rate far higher than in peer nations, report finds

Alarming disparities persist, particularly between white and Black mothers, according to new report by Commonwealth Fund

The US has a far higher rate of maternal mortality than other peer wealthy nations, and an extraordinary disparity between white and Black Americans, according to a new brief released by the Commonwealth Fund.

The American outlier status persisted even as the maternal mortality rate has improved in the post-pandemic era, both in the US and globally.

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