Australia has high rates of medical and surgical intervention (including caesarean section) during birth, especially in private hospitals. While these interventions can be harmful if overused, people working…
I recently visited a new McDonald’s outlet on the northern fringes of Sydney. What I found inside left me gawping in astonishment: soft lighting, views of nature, a mixture of private and communal spaces…
There are three ways a baby can be born: a spontaneous vaginal birth where the mother pushes the baby out herself, an instrumental vaginal birth where forceps or vacuum extractors are used to pull the…
Thibault Renoir, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Anthony Hannan, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Each one of us is the complex product of nature and nurture, genes and environment. They combine in a myriad of complex ways during embryonic and postnatal development to sculpt our brains and bodies…
A woman who is cared for by the same midwife throughout her pregnancy, labour and after birth saves the public health system around A$550, a new study has found, debunking the myth that it is an expensive…
Women who have a midwife as their main carer throughout pregnancy and birth are around 23% less likely to have a premature baby than women whose care is shared between different obstetricians, GPs and…
A study recently published in the British Medical Journal (project Viva) has found that children born by caesarean section have a higher rate of obesity at age three than children born naturally. At first…
Advances in medical science and technology have significantly reduced the risk of serious complications and death during pregnancy and birth. You’d think this would make mums-to-be more relaxed than they…
People often ask me whether natural selection continues to operate on modern humans in industrialised societies, even though technology has liberated so many from hunger and early death. My answer is always…
We live in a world with many different perspectives on risk. Entire professions now exist to advise us on how to recognise, avoid and manage risk. And the maternity and obstetric professions are no different…
Imagine how frightening it must be for a woman to go into labour when she is just over halfway through her pregnancy and her baby has only had 23 or 24 weeks to grow. She and her family are overcome with…
Choosing where to give birth – whether in a public hospital, private facility or in the home – is a fundamental human right that should be available to all Australian women. But despite the Commonwealth…