This March, my first child will be here – and I’ll be able to touch the little dimple in his ultrasound pictures. When I smile, I have one, just like my mother
It is a shocking fact that more than 16 million women give birth every year without this basic necessity. This cannot go on, says chef, author and presenter Nadiya Hussain
Analysis shows significant benefits with no major side-effects for mother or baby but more trials needed ‘to confirm results’• [Update: the study on which this article reports was later withdrawn by the BMJ owing to ‘fundamental flaws’ in the research – see footnote]
For everyone who went through a birth in the early days of lockdown, the longer-term effects and anxieties will take years to process, says Eva Wiseman