‘I’ve been called Satan’: Dr Rachel Clarke on facing abuse in the Covid crisis

As well as fighting to keep Covid patients alive, NHS staff are now battling a surge in abuse and denial in the second wave. Dr Rachel Clarke on how she is coping – and what gives her hope

Rachel Clarke: ‘NHS staff are burning with frustration and grief at this second wave’

The palliative care doctor and author on a year of Covid in UK hospitals and her hopes for the vaccine

Tom Templeton: ‘I suspect doctors have realised how therapeutic it can be to write books’

The former Observer writer and now GP talks about his new book, 34 Patients, and the challenges he has faced during the pandemic

Covid: NHS hospital trusts told to rethink pregnant women partner ban

Fresh guidance issued after growing outrage about women being forced to go through labour alone

The natural birth cultists care little about leaving women in agony

The horrors found by the Ockenden report are not alas confined to one maternity unit

Distressed mother separated from breastfed baby for days during hospital stay

Hospital admits breaking own Covid policy as mothers like Charlotte Jones are being needlessly kept apart from their babies

Lives of mothers and babies left in danger at Nottingham University hospitals trust – report

Care Quality Commission downgrades trust’s maternity services to inadequate

Mothers needlessly separated from babies under UK hospital Covid rules

Restrictions are causing trauma and increasing risk of physical and mental health problems, warn doctors and charities

‘I needed to fix myself for my kids’: breaking the cycle of domestic abuse

Families with complicated lives are being helped by a project that supports both parents during their child’s first two years

Labours of Love by Madeleine Bunting review – a humbling book about care

Care, paid and unpaid, is at the heart of society, now more than ever ... this is a moving and absorbing in-depth investigation

Overstretched health visitors caring for up to 2,400 families each

Exclusive: health chief fearful over impact of a lack of visits for newborns in England

GP cash incentive linked to fall in UK abortion rates, study finds

Use of long-acting reversible contraceptives rose due to scheme encouraging targeted advice to women

Women in England struggling to access contraception as result of underfunding

Report calls for women to have access to progestogen-only contraceptive pills over counter

‘It destroys lives’: why the razor-blade pain of vaginismus is so misunderstood

This common condition can lead to relationship breakdown and unnecessary surgery. So why is treatment still so poor and underfunded?

‘Suzanne wears a necklace that reads Mama-To-Be. The rest of her is blood and gore’: notes from the nursing frontline

In 20 years as a paediatric nurse, I have witnessed the extremes of pain and joy. What keeps me coming back is hope