Motherhood

Analysis and Comment (8)

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You may not forget the pain, but if you’re lucky, the end will justify the means. Image from shutterstock.com

Monday’s medical myth: women forget the pain of childbirth

By Monique Robinson, University of Western Australia

In an evolutionary sense, memory of pain serves an important purpose. Pain indicates a threat to our safety or our life, and human survival depends on us avoiding things that are going to kill us. Historically…
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Most of us know little about the experiences of people who are drawn to the multimillion dollar surrogacy industry. Mike Reys

Origins of Love: the reality and ethics of reproductive tourism

By Loane Skene, University of Melbourne

Assisted reproductive technology has grown significantly in Australia as in other countries and hundreds of thousands of children have now been born because of it around the world. Most of us know people…
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Representing foetuses as “babies” can have a serious impact on women’s access to contraception and abortion. Trevor Bair

Hilarious or horrifying? Foetuses Photoshopped onto bellies

By Meredith Nash, University of Tasmania

I was both delighted and confused when I saw a discussion of a new “trend” in pregnancy pictures on STFU, Parents, a US blog that pokes fun at people who “overshare” information about parenting through…
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A human egg being worked on in an IVF clinic. Adrian Wiggins

IVF treatment for older women: is age the greatest concern?

By Mianna Lotz

Considerable public controversy exists around the question of access to in-vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) for older women. Some support unlimited, publicly-funded access for all infertile women and…
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Parents who are transgender tend to confront people’s ideas about the possibilities of parenthood. Presley Martin

He’s my mother: motherhood across gender boundaries

By Jennifer Power, La Trobe University

In the 2005 film Transamerica, Felicity Huffman’s character, Bree, is set to begin gender reassignment surgery when she receives a phone call from a teenage boy looking for his father, Stanley, the man…
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Many women believe that experiencing pregnancy is a key component of motherhood. Dhini van Heeren

A womb of her own: risking uterus transplant for pregnancy

By Ruby Catsanos

On a weekend in mid-September 2012, a team of gynaecologists and transplant specialists at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, performed two uterus transplants with living donors. In both cases…

Research Briefs (8)

New mothers are anxious – not depressed

Penn State College of Medicine

A study has found that anxiety is more common than depression among new mothers. Researchers surveyed mothers of healthy…

Participants (27)