A home help for eight days after giving birth? Why Dutch maternity care is the envy of the world

Everyone who gives birth in the Netherlands has the legal right to a kraamzorg to help with everything from breastfeeding to laundry. How do these new mums find it?

My grandmother’s support – and Creole cooking – helped me to love myself when I didn’t know how

When I felt lonely growing up, my grandmother’s company and cuisine were a soothing balm

Pregnant in Gaza with no clinics: ‘I have no idea where I will give birth’

As one of 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, Noor Hammad faces a traumatic birth and fraught start in life for her first baby

Fertility patients in UK unable to keep stored embryos amid cost of living crisis

Rising inflation has made it harder for patients to continue fertility treatment, experts say

I put other people’s needs before my own. Why do I do things I don’t want to?

People pleasing won’t guarantee others’ wellbeing, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but it will ensure you feel resentful

Where did I find the courage to talk to my mum about her cancer? At parkrun, far behind the racers

Every Saturday morning, thousands of people get off their sofas to cover 5km in their local park. Like me, a growing number are there to walk rather than run – and to talk about their deepest feelings

‘There was blood. A dash to the hospital. No heartbeat’ – how I survived the stillbirth of my son

My world came crashing down when my baby died. The future my wife and I had been planning for nine months had been snatched away, and for fathers like me there seemed to be no one to turn to

My friend is struggling to assert herself with her family. Should I say something?

It sounds like you’re a loving friend, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, and don’t underestimate how much that is already helping

You be the judge: should my boyfriend stop carrying his huge water bottle everywhere?

Jenny finds the constant presence of ‘the tank’ cringe-inducing, but for health-conscious Jared it’s practical and prudent. Whose argument needs drenching?

After my husband died, I struggled to listen to music – but now I find comfort in the songs he loved

Music was Margaret McNally and her husband’s shared love language. Two years after his death, she’s working through his playlist to keep his spirit alive

‘Upending the genre’: the children’s author rewriting the rules of sex ed

A new trio of books for kids focuses on consent, kindness and curiosity. Author Cory Silverberg explains why we need to rethink talking with young people about sex

10 questions to ask a teenager to start an important conversation

We asked experts in teen mental health how to talk about everything from the environment to screen time with adolescents

Naps, nuts and gentle parenting: everything you need to know about new babies

A quick guide for parents to the latest research and studies on raising infants and looking after toddlers

‘It felt futile’: young Britons swap career-driven lives for family and fun

UK millennials are shunning overtime and excess work stress, and focusing more on loved ones and personal fulfilment

Why do we bathe children before bed, but wash ourselves in the morning?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts