More babies are being born by caesarean section in England than delivered naturally - without assistance - for the first time. Latest NHS data for 2024-25 shows that 45% of births were by C-section, compared to 44% which were spontaneous, a term used to describe a natural vaginal birth. Another 11% needed extra support and interventions like forceps. Nearly half of the caesaereans - when the baby is delivered by surgeons cutting into the mother's abdomen and womb - were planned in advance.
The more we dug, the more we realized there was a gap between the procedure's public perception as a routine, normal part of giving birth and what experts were saying. We set out to figure out why. We also wanted to better understand the complexity involved in a procedure that can be life-saving and is also performed around double the rate the World Health Organization says is "ideal" for maternal and infant health.
I got an extremely rare blood infection. On November 20, I was placed in a medically induced coma after I was found unresponsive in my bed. I was asleep for six days. Unfortunately, with my organs failing and the sickness infecting my placenta, our baby passed away in my womb. Hours later, my body went into natural labor and Jahlani watched me deliver our baby unconscious. He said it was like my body just knew what to do.
I always felt like there were two divergent paths for me to follow. One led to New York City, where I would live my best Carrie Bradshaw life, fiercely independent. The other led to a partner I really trusted, and a large family to structure my life around. Soon after I met my husband, Demario Davis, I realized I was moving along the second path.
Later, I would learn that 59% of abortion patients already have a kid - that the majority of the women who choose the procedure do it so they can better support a child that they already have. That my situation was actually quite common. Since the beginning of time, women have made decisions like this. I would also learn that the birthrate in the U.S. was falling each year and that 74% of parents under 50 were not interested in adding another child to their lives.
Dr. Karla Solheim leads the Iowa chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She says practicing got harder after Iowa's abortion ban started in 2024. KARLA SOLHEIM: It just feels like our job is impossible. KREBS: Solheim says a recent pregnant patient developed life-threatening complications, so Solheim ended the pregnancy. She says afterwards she was grilled by hospital administrators to make sure the abortion qualified for an exception under the law.
Having a child should be the greatest day of a New Yorkers' life; it was for me. On that day, you should not have to worry about where you're going to take your baby once you leave the hospital. You should not have to worry about whether your child will grow up on the verge of homelessness or in a home. In 2024 alone, over 2,000 babies were born in New York City shelters that's 2,000 too many.
In the lead up to her son's birth, Jacqueline made plans to call 911 for an ambulance to pick her up from her North Florida home and transport her to a hospital about an hour away. The second-time mom and Guatemalan immigrant, who has lived in the country for a decade, would have relied on her husband to drive her to the hospital. But a few months ago he was deported, leaving Jacqueline and her daughter without the family's primary source of income,
Her story is part of a disturbing rise in pregnant people suddenly being approached by border patrol officers or plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. As ICE raids have devastated more families in recent months, immigrant and reproductive rights advocates have raised concerns about the impact of the raids on the reproductive health of those arrested, detained, and forcibly separated from their families.
Results of this study indicate that the association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders is a noncausal association. Birthing parents with higher acetaminophen use differed in many aspects from those with lower use or no use. Results suggested that there was not one single "smoking gun" confounder, but rather that multiple birthing parents' health and sociodemographic characteristics each explained at least part of the apparent association.
She died days later at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, after her body went into septic shock from a Group A Streptococcus infection. Her family believes medical staff at Credit Valley Hospital didn't act quickly enough when Sidhu first presented signs of sepsis even ignoring pleas from the family and that her death may have been preventable if life-saving efforts were made sooner.
Birch, a then 28-year-old emergency dispatcher in Colorado, hadn't gone into labor expecting surgery. She was healthy. Her first pregnancy had been going well, and her full-term baby was positioned face down - an ideal candidate for a vaginal birth. As her contractions grew stronger, a delivery room nurse urged Birch to get an epidural before the hospital anesthesiologist finished his shift. Birch agreed.
Several panel members cited studies that lacked appropriate controls, making it uncertain whether the observed health problems were caused by SSRIs, underlying mood disorders, or other factors.
Sarah Gleeson, from Cork, was shocked when she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her first pregnancy seven years ago. 'I've always been health conscious, and we'd been trying to get pregnant for about 10 months, so I was very conscious of my diet,' she says.
