Living in a tent with premature triplets: how fear and anxiety haunt Gaza’s new mothers

Some women in Gaza have spent the duration of the war pregnant, but the constant bombing, death and chaos have cast a shadow over what should be a time of joy

After a night spent shaking in fear as the roof rattled from explosions, and a long walk along a crowded road, Diana Mahmoud arrived at the hospital where she gave birth to her son, Yaman.

Mahmoud, 22, discovered she was pregnant a week after the outbreak of the war in Gaza and, like other mothers who became pregnant about that time, spent her entire pregnancy fearing for her own safety as well as that of her child. Miscarriages are three times more likely than before the war, according to a February report by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.

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Baring the bump: celebrities are helping to force a shift in maternity fashion

There is an increasing focus on clothes worn during pregnancy that celebrate, rather than hide, stomachs

Celebrities from the Italian lakes to the steps of the Metropolitan museum in New York are showing that the pregnancy bump is enjoying its own moment in the spotlight.

When Margot Robbie was photographed on Lake Como earlier this week, a cropped top left uncovered was widely reported as being evidence of the Barbie actor’s pregnancy. The White Lotus actor Alexandra Daddario appeared in Vogue on Thursday drinking tea wearing a Phoebe Philo shirt, undone from the sternum down, baring a bump.

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‘I am happy to see how my baby is bouncing’: the AI transforming pregnancy scans in Africa

While ultrasound services are normal practice in many countries, software being tested in Uganda will allow a scan without the need for specialists, providing an incentive for pregnant women to visit health services early on

Mothers-to-be have become used to the first glimpse of their baby via the fuzzy black and white ultrasound scan, an image that can be shown to friends and family. But it remains a luxury in many parts of the world. Now AI is being used to develop technology to bring the much-anticipated pregnancy milestone to women who are most in need of the scan’s medical checkup on a baby’s health.

A pilot project in Uganda is using AI software to power ultrasound imaging to not only scan unborn babies but also to encourage women to attend health services at an earlier stage in their pregnancies, helping to reduce stillbirths and complications.

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From contaminated blood to birth trauma, how female NHS patients’ concerns are ignored

England’s patient safety commissioner says NHS patients raising concerns are dismissed as ‘difficult women’

• NHS patients raising safety concerns too often ‘fobbed off’, says commissioner

England’s patient safety commissioner, Henrietta Hughes, has warned that NHS patients raising concerns are too often “gaslighted”, “fobbed off” or dismissed as “difficult women”.

“It shows a very dismissive and very old fashioned, patronising attitude to patients who have identified problems and need to have their voices heard,” she said.

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Babyproof a yacht? How the super-rich are turning to the ‘mummy concierge’

Increasingly, no expense is being spared by the wealthy when it comes to tackling problems such as finding a £3,000 nightdress or brainstorming a name

A poet, a linguist and a marketing guru join forces to come up with the name of an unborn child. The start of a bad joke? The plotline for the next episode of Black Mirror? Neither – rather, it’s one of the jobs a “mummy concierge” to the super-rich can be asked to do.

Baby-proofing a yacht to ensure the plugs fit a breast pump, finding the best potty-training expert in town and reminding prospective mums to pack their facial mist in their overnight bag are just some of the other tasks Tiffany Norris has put in her diary of late.

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Air pollution can decrease odds of live birth after IVF by 38%, study finds

Research suggests impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of the egg

Air pollution exposure can significantly decrease the chance of a live birth after IVF treatment, according to research that deepens concern about the health impacts of toxic air on fertility.

Pollutant exposure has previously been linked to increased miscarriage rates and preterm births, and microscopic soot particles have been shown to travel through the bloodstream into the ovaries and the placenta. The latest work suggests that the impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of eggs.

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Rat soup, snails and oracles: why Nigeria’s traditional midwives still have a vital role to play

Doctors may not always agree with their methods, but in Lagos state, traditional birth attendants are helping to connect women and babies with modern maternity treatments

The sound of chanting fills the narrow corridor that serves as a waiting room, as about 30 pregnant women pray for safe deliveries and protection against wizards, witches and other enemies they believe could harm them or their babies.

The women take turns in the small bathroom, where they stand on a rock and use soap, nest-like straw sponges and seeds blessed by a prophet ​to wash away evil spirits.

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