Childbirth

The head of anti-smoking authority Quit Victoria has echoed calls to breath-test pregnant women to check if they are smoking after Britain’s healthcare body successfully introduced the scheme. Carbon monoxide breath tests, enforced by Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, are proposed to be administered by midwives at antenatal appointments. The new measures […]

Cutting the umbilical cord is a symbolic part of childbirth but increasing numbers of Australian women are choosing to leave the cord and placenta attached until they fall off naturally — which can take three or four days. So called “lotus births” are growing in popularity in Australia, particularly in the past two years. Lotus […]

Any mum will tell you that childbirth is difficult, but dads can be equally traumatised by the birthing process, new research has claimed. An Oxford University study found that complicated pregnancies can have a big impact on fathers as well as mothers, with some new dads so deeply affected they are being diagnosed with post-traumatic […]

The number of Australian women having natural births is at an all-time low, with the numbers of women having caesareans and induced births are increasing. A national maternity report published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today revealed that birth interventions are increasingly prevalent in both public and private hospitals. The number of […]

Every day, in hospitals all around Australia, women who don’t need caesareans are having them. In the past 15 years our caesarean rate has nearly doubled — leaving us with one of the highest rates of C-sections in the world. Thirty-two per cent of women now have their babies delivered by caesarean in Australia, and […]

Two and a half years after a doctor injected her spine with antiseptic instead of anaesthetic during the birth of her first child, Grace Wang is yet to come to terms with a medical disaster that has torn away her hope for the future and replaced it with fear and uncertainty. Grace Wang is a […]

The arrival of a new baby is always a reason to celebrate, but for iconic Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, the birth of her baby boy has brought a joyous end to a long journey. The 47-year-old gave birth to a much longed for healthy baby boy, Hunter Desmond David Dinnigan Cocks, and the Royal […]

In the wake of the tragic death of home birth advocate Caroline Lovell, a mother of eight home-born babies and one who chose to have a caesarean section discuss their birth experiences. The case for hospital births Emma Macdonald, journalist and mother of two, who elected to have a caesarean for her second birth. The […]

Home birth hit the headlines worldwide this week when advocate Caroline Lovell died after delivering her baby daughter at home. Caroline, 36, is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest shortly after giving birth to baby Zahra on Monday, January 23. She was already “critically ill” by the time paramedics arrived at her north Melbourne […]

Childbirth is a miraculous thing, but would you like to see it on television? If not, keep the remote handy tonight because a Sydney fertility clinic is launching a new ad that features a real woman giving birth. The advertisement for Genea, formerly Sydney IVF, shows a New Zealand woman giving birth to her fourth […]