The conventional guideline for sharing the news of a pregnancy is that you should wait until the ceremonial 12 or 13-week mark, the endpoint of the most anxiety-ridden first trimester when most pregnancy losses are diagnosed. What the rule is really saying is: Don't get too excited. But what if you do have a miscarriage? You're left alone to navigate your tragedy, one that you did nothing to cause, one that so many others have experienced, too.

Sarah Austin wanted to have an unmedicated vaginal delivery, so she and her partner wrote a two-page birth plan at the urging of their nurse midwife. Included in it was the possibility that she might have a caesarean, and how she hoped it would be handled if so. “I considered a C-section not the desired outcome,” says Austin, “but a possible outcome.”

In birth month clubs, a modern phenomenon in which pregnant strangers convene in online groups based on the month of their due dates, something always happens. After nearly a year of commiserating through posts about baby name quandaries and clueless partners and weird shit that happens to your body, you’ll start to see a smattering of birth announcements, accompanied by photos of scrunchy, red-faced newborns.

It’s exciting! New mums are showered with congrats and well wishes. Then, as the weeks go by, you’ll see more announcements. And more photos. Soon, the buzz wears off. Those left standing (or more likely, whimpering in fetal position) start wondering when it’s their turn. Posts take a turn for the desperate. I’m so jealous. I’m so uncomfortable. WHEN WILL I GIVE BIRTH?!

Deciding when to have the second (or third) child can often feel more complicated than having the first.

Close to 30 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, by one estimate. And yet so many mums and dads still suffer in silence. How do you support a friend or family member who has lost a baby? October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and in a powerful Reddit thread, people shared what you can really do to help.

Oh, the highs and lows of pregnancy. As you watch your belly expand (so miraculous!), you simultaneously notice the number of wearable items in your closet dwindle (so frustrating!). But you don’t have to be stuck wearing your partner’s saggiest pair of trackies for the next nine months. Here are our best tips and tricks for dressing comfortably — and even stylishly — as you grow a person.

Video: 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.

So, readers, I’m pregnant! Third trimester. Boy. Current physical state: Low and slow. I’m excited, a little overwhelmed and feeling all the feelings.

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.