If you’ve ever tried to make new friends as an adult, writes Anastasia Hronis, you’ll probably see why loneliness is at an all-time high. Making new friends feels just plain hard. In school, making friends can be as simple as going on the monkey bars together....
None of us would be here without our placenta, the remarkable fetal organ that nourished and sustained us before birth. But despite its importance, the placenta is among the least studied organs and we don’t fully understand how it grows and functions, reports Alys Clark...
by Karin Hammarberg, Robert Norman and Sarah Lensen In the past two decades there has been a significant rise in IVF clinics worldwide offering costly testing of embryos to make sure they have the right number of chromosomes. The theory is this will improve the chance of...
What do I need to know? asks Thea van de Mortel With the surge in Omicron cases, doctors are finding presentations of croup in children seeking hospital care for COVID in Australia and internationally. In some cases, children presenting to hospital with croup are infected only with...
‘Maeve’s law’ would let IVF parents access technology to prevent mitochondrial disease. Here’s what the Senate is debating, report David Thorburn and Megan Munsie The Senate has been debating “Maeve’s law” – a proposal to legalise access to new assisted reproductive techniques that will reduce the...
Maxine Clark’s son begins to ponder the more obvious markers of his Jamaican heritage. “Your mum’s brown,” a little girl at my son’s childcare centre announced matter-of-factly to him when I arrived to pick him up last week. It wasn’t a criticism; it wasn’t an insult....
Researchers Anthea Lindquist and Stephen Tong report that vaginal birth after caesarean increases the risk of serious perineal tear by 20%, their large-scale review shows Pregnant women who previously birthed by caesarean section are presented with a choice: whether to try for a vaginal birth, or...
In the war of wills with her children, Gemma Rolleman has learnt to pick her battles. Last night, my seven-year-old daughter regurgitated a spoonful of my carefully prepared risotto back onto her plate. “Yuck,” she spluttered, her nose wrinkled, “that’s disgusting.” I half expected the reaction....
When I first became a mother in 2013, Carla Pascoe Leahy reports, I realised my experiences of motherhood did not match the kinds of messages circulating around me. As a society we talk about motherhood either in cheesy sentimentalities – think of gift catalogues for Mother’s...
At age 35, one in four Australian women and one in three men were hoping to have a child or more children in the future, writes Karin Hammarberg. But by age 49, about half report they haven’t yet had the number of children they hoped...
