Seaweed, sardines and sauerkraut: the best diet for your brain at every stage of life

It’s never too early or late to use nutrition to improve brain health. From iodine intake to avoiding ultra-processed foods, here’s what to bear in mind

While the foundations of brain structure and function are laid during pregnancy and early life, the brain is constantly being fuelled and shaped by the food and drink we consume daily. We should be thinking of brain health like a pension plan; it is best to start as early as possible so that you have more to draw from when you need it. That said, it is never too late to invest in your brain health. Here is how to use nutrition to aid the brain at each stage of life.

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The rigorous care I received while pregnant ceased after birth – right when I needed it most | Sarah Kendell

Australia offers world-class prenatal care but at the most difficult transition of our lives – after childbirth – it leaves us to fend for ourselves

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In my nine months of pregnancy, I had more medical appointments than I remember having in my previous 35 years of life. When I told my GP I was pregnant, I received a stack of blood test and ultrasound referral forms, and once I selected an obstetrician this stack of forms became a weekly occurrence.

Despite the fact I never returned an abnormal result on any of the dozens of tests I had between conceiving and giving birth to my son, the tests just seemed to beget more tests, like some kind of medical Tough Mudder course full of elaborate obstacles I had to jump over – or waddle over with increasing difficulty – to earn the ultimate prize of having a baby.

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Having a baby after pregnancy loss is a joy. But it may never wipe the slate clean | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

A revealing new book challenges the notion of miscarriage as a blip in the past, rather than an experience that can reverberate in the present

“It’s the idea that everything is healed.” Jennie Agg is talking to me about miscarriage. Or, specifically, how it feels to have a baby after miscarriage – or miscarriages, plural; Agg had four before she gave birth to her boy. Life, Almost – her book detailing her experiences and investigating why miscarriage still remains such an under-researched and under-acknowledged experience – has just come out, and it’s a vital new examination of the subject, with each chapter given the title of some of the false, trite or dismissive things people say: “It’s just nature’s way”, “it’s not a real baby yet”, “everything happens for a reason”.

In a book full of insights, perhaps one of the most affecting is the dawning understanding of the legacy that pregnancy loss can have. There is still an absurdly prevalent notion that finally getting a healthy baby – as most couples who experience miscarriage will – somehow wipes the slate clean, and makes everything that has happened in the past melt away. “Any residual grief, trauma or yearning is supposed to be washed away by the arrival of a longed-for child,” she writes. “After all – you got what you wanted, didn’t you?”

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Nihilistic and crazed, Cocaine Bear is zoological zeitgeist for these end times | Bidisha Mamata

A drug-filled beast and an ennui-prone alligator sum up 21st-century life, but at least Flaco the owl is a positive role model

I’ll be first in line to watch Cocaine Bear, the new film based on a 1985 true story about a bear in Tennessee who snuffled a stash of drug smugglers’ cocaine and went into a deep-fried southern frenzy. Why Hollywood waited nearly 40 years to dramatise this is beyond me, but come 2023, Cocaine Bear is all of us: nihilistic, crazed, hypervigilant and doomed.

Other animals are role-modelling alternative attitudes to these end times. Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl who escaped from New York’s Central Park zoo, is living his best life. Despite being raised in captivity, he’s been hunting by night and visiting the park’s skating rink like a sanguine Manhattan flaneur.

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Google adverts direct pregnant women to services run by UK anti-abortion groups

The tech giant is carrying adverts styled to look like real internet search results for women seeking pregnancy advice

Women seeking online advice about abortions are being directed to pregnancy counselling services run by anti-abortion campaigners, an Observer investigation has found.

Google adverts that are styled to look like real search results and appear above genuine listings are routinely being shown to people searching key terms relating to pregnancy and abortion.

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Children born after induced labour ‘may score lower in tests at 12’

Researchers say impact on attainment is small but medical teams should think carefully before artificially kickstarting labour

Children born after induced labour may score lower in school tests at age 12, research suggests. Although the impact on individual attainment is small, researchers said it should prompt medical teams to “think twice” before artificially kickstarting labour in otherwise healthy pregnancies.

Most pregnancies come to a natural end after 37 to 42 weeks with the spontaneous onset of labour, but approximately one in five births in the UK are artificially induced. Sometimes there are strong medical grounds for doing so, such as the mother or baby’s health being at risk, but in other cases women may be offered an induction because their baby is apparently healthy but overdue.

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RFU’s new England maternity policy provides 26 weeks of leave on full pay

• England players contracted to the RFU set to benefit
• Abbie Ward: ‘Will help normalise motherhood in sport’

England players contracted to the Rugby Football Union will benefit from a new maternity policy that includes 26 weeks of leave on full pay. Also included in the “maternity, pregnant parent and adoption leave policy” is the capacity for pregnant players to perform other roles within rugby until they begin maternity leave.

The programme set up by the RFU in conjunction with the Rugby Players’ Association will also make provision for infants to travel with players to games and training camps.

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