‘A baby made his first sound on the 106 bus’: readers share amazing birth stories

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools let their eldest daughters watch the birth of their sibling this week. You told us about the births you’ve witnessed

Giving birth the Jools Oliver way – letting the kids watch

Jamie Oliver and wife Jools had their fifth child this week. With their eldest daughters watching the delivery and cutting the cord. Nothing wrong with that, says a top midwife

Have you been present at the birth of someone else’s baby?

Jamie Oliver’s children witnessed their mother, Jools, give birth this week. Have you seen someone experience childbirth?

Japan’s $1m fertility gambit to help women become mothers

With the country’s population in decline, Urayasu plans to spend 90m yen to preserve women’s eggs for future use

Investigations into baby deaths often inadequate, says study

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says reviews often exclude parents and are of poor quality

Why do a million women still suffer the treatable condition of fistula?

On the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, a campaigner argues that better access to surgery in remote areas is essential to end this neglect of women

Fifteen babies a day in UK are stillborn or die within month of birth

Report flags up urgent need for research into stark variations across country as charity calls government funding ‘woefully inadequate’

What I’m really thinking: the birth mother

At school, friends’ mothers told me I had done the right thing, while their daughters stared, unable to think of anything to say

Saving a new mother from death almost made me quit as a nurse

When a patient haemorrhaged after giving birth I realised I could make the difference between life and death – and dread set in

Posh and pregnant: five-star childbirth at the Portland

The Portland is the UK’s most exclusive private maternity hospital, but can all that candlelit fakery really distract from the blood and pain, asks Eva Wiseman