We’ve written before that the best gifts for new parents are services, not things. But your friends and family may not realise this, and so at your baby shower, they hand you a bonnet adorned with little duckies, something your new bundle will wear for one adorable Instagram photo and then never see again.

They mean well, but could use — and would probably appreciate — some direction.

The pregnant body — it’s a beautiful thing! It’s also a sweaty, gassy, crampy, achy, leaky, bumpy thing. Nobody says growing a new human is easy, but few people tell you about all the weird and gross ailments that can crop up throughout those nine months. Here’s why they happen, and what you can do about them.

You can read all the books about what to expect when you're growing a human inside you - but the fact sheets and stats don't always tell you the real story. Here's a two-minute video provides some rapid insights, from what makes the placenta so fascinating to what exactly is inside breast milk.

In this episode, we're talking with Angela Garbes, the author of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy.

Six years ago, one of my best friends and I were pregnant at the same time and throughout the day, we would text each other one word: "Kegels!" It was a reminder for us to get in those pelvic squeezes — 100 a day was a recommendation we both had heard — as a way to prepare our bodies for childbirth. Kegel exercises, the contraction and release of pelvic floor muscles, have reigned for decades as the go-to exercise to help make labour faster and easier.

So-called “baby brain” refers to increased forgetfulness, inattention, and mental “fogginess” reported by four out of five pregnant women. These changes in brain function during pregnancy have long been recognised in midwifery folklore, but our new study has confirmed “baby brain” is a very real phenomenon, and also affects several cognitive areas.

The world of advertising and marketing is competitive with creative professionals going to all sorts of lengths to cajole customers into spending their hard-earned cash. One of the most trusted tools is the good old discount and who needs a helping hand on saving bucks more than an expectant parent? IKEA is currently offering discounts to expectant mums as long as they prove they're pregnant. Enter - the pregnancy-test-in-a-catalogue.

Do epidurals prolong labour? Read the recent headlines and you'd think we finally answered that question once and for all - with epidurals turning out to have no effect. But the study actually asked what happens if you already have an epidural, and turn it off as you're pushing out the baby.

"Oooh, how bout my sperm meet your eggs tonight?" asked no man ever.

"I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat," my doctor said to me. She didn't sound very sorry, leaving the room so quickly -- ostensibly so I could pull up my underwear -- that she couldn't hear me burst out in tears.

If you're pregnant or have a newborn, you're probably getting a lot of advice! What infant straightjacket is best for swaddling, what "drowsy but awake" looks like, why "sleep regression" might be a term invented just to mess with you. Here's another piece of advice that may or may not make you feel better: Exercise during pregnancy and in the few months after delivery can help ward off postpartum depression. It even reduces depression among women who aren't depressed enough to meet the PPD diagnostic criteria.

It's easy to gripe about condoms, how they're inconvenient or they dull sensitivity, but the reality is they can be much more pleasurable than most people think. Here's your guide to finding the condom that's right for you.

I once heard a comedian say, "Never ask a woman if she's pregnant unless you actually see a baby's head coming out of her legs." Sage advice -- too bad no one ever takes it. I can't tell you how many times people asked me if I was pregnant, if I was planning on getting pregnant or what I was waiting for to get pregnant.

Pregnant bellies come in many shapes and sizes, and they're all beautiful. But when people on the internet saw the "baby bump" of fitness model Sarah Stage, they cried, "SORCERY!"

It's time to do another reality check on the latest health news. This week people are telling us to snort cocoa powder but not to eat our own personal organ meats. Does their advice check out? Let's dig in.

The best thing about getting married is that nosy acquaintances stop asking you, "So when will you two get married?" The worst thing is that they start asking you, "So when will you two start having kids?"

The standing pregnant train passenger poses a dilemma for politeness: Do you offer up your seat so she can sit down, or mind your own business in case she isn't pregnant and would be mortified that you assumed she was?

I saw the promoted tweet last night. "Are you expecting? Questions about food? @CanIEatThisBot has tips from the FDA and Mayo Clinic." But when I started asking questions, things got weird. Spoiler: It lies.

Of all the physical indignities of having a baby -- the delivery, the breastfeeding, the mesh undies that made me feel like an enormous wounded sea creature snagged in a tiny net -- the postpartum stomach pooch is among the worst. For many of us, our distended abdomens deflate eventually, given time and maybe a little exercise. But for everyone else, the pooch remains staunchly... poochy, an unpleasant remnant of a difficult time. It's a condition called diastasis recti, or the separation of one's abdominal muscles, and, at least it my case, it made me look six months pregnant well after delivery.