President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Monday launching moms.gov, a website aimed at supporting expectant mothers with additional resources. During the event, Trump riffed about his moves to cap the price of prescription drugs and slammed the media over what he claimed was a refusal to cover the topic. The media, they don't want to write about it. Think of it. We're reducing drug prices by 50%, 60%, or 80%, or 75%. Anyway, it's all about the phrasing of the question. And the media doesn't write about it. It's amazing. It's so sad. It's biased.
For millions of women in the United States, being a mother comes with an extraordinary price tag. From the earliest stages of pregnancy through childbirth and into years of childcare, expenses for healthcare, delivery and raising a child are significantly higher in the US than in most other wealthy countries. Even basic needs like medical care and childcare can place a major burden on families.
For many Rohingya women here, pregnancy is endured rather than anticipated, shadowed by the knowledge that when labour comes, it may be far from the care that could keep them safe.
"It's such a small effort for such a tremendous impact," said Lopez, 44, who lives in Bakersfield and is now a lawyer with two young daughters. "There is very little that I wouldn't do to spare anybody this heartache."
This is something that's been practiced in homes since the beginning of time. I saw how much it actually helped her, as far as her mood and ability to continue on with daily responsibilities. The Chef Doula concept took root when Thomas was growing up in California with a single mother who experienced two miscarriages, and he started cooking to help during her recovery.
Several maternal health experts described a sobering list of dangers for the girls at the San Benito shelter: If one of them develops an ectopic pregnancy (where the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus), if she miscarries or if her water breaks too early and she gets an infection, the emergency care she needs could be delayed or denied by doctors wary of the abortion ban.
These ghosts of our nation drove overdose deaths to record highs during the pandemic. More than 100,000 Americans ODed in a 12-month period ending in April 2021, up almost 30 percent from the prior year. The majority of these deaths of despair, about 70 percent, were among men between the ages of 25 and 54, men who should be creating or influencing or building cars or welding high steel.
More babies are being born by caesarean section in England than delivered naturally - without assistance - for the first time. Latest NHS data for 2024-25 shows that 45% of births were by C-section, compared to 44% which were spontaneous, a term used to describe a natural vaginal birth. Another 11% needed extra support and interventions like forceps. Nearly half of the caesaereans - when the baby is delivered by surgeons cutting into the mother's abdomen and womb - were planned in advance.
The more we dug, the more we realized there was a gap between the procedure's public perception as a routine, normal part of giving birth and what experts were saying. We set out to figure out why. We also wanted to better understand the complexity involved in a procedure that can be life-saving and is also performed around double the rate the World Health Organization says is "ideal" for maternal and infant health.
I got an extremely rare blood infection. On November 20, I was placed in a medically induced coma after I was found unresponsive in my bed. I was asleep for six days. Unfortunately, with my organs failing and the sickness infecting my placenta, our baby passed away in my womb. Hours later, my body went into natural labor and Jahlani watched me deliver our baby unconscious. He said it was like my body just knew what to do.
I always felt like there were two divergent paths for me to follow. One led to New York City, where I would live my best Carrie Bradshaw life, fiercely independent. The other led to a partner I really trusted, and a large family to structure my life around. Soon after I met my husband, Demario Davis, I realized I was moving along the second path.
Later, I would learn that 59% of abortion patients already have a kid - that the majority of the women who choose the procedure do it so they can better support a child that they already have. That my situation was actually quite common. Since the beginning of time, women have made decisions like this. I would also learn that the birthrate in the U.S. was falling each year and that 74% of parents under 50 were not interested in adding another child to their lives.
Dr. Karla Solheim leads the Iowa chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She says practicing got harder after Iowa's abortion ban started in 2024. KARLA SOLHEIM: It just feels like our job is impossible. KREBS: Solheim says a recent pregnant patient developed life-threatening complications, so Solheim ended the pregnancy. She says afterwards she was grilled by hospital administrators to make sure the abortion qualified for an exception under the law.
Having a child should be the greatest day of a New Yorkers' life; it was for me. On that day, you should not have to worry about where you're going to take your baby once you leave the hospital. You should not have to worry about whether your child will grow up on the verge of homelessness or in a home. In 2024 alone, over 2,000 babies were born in New York City shelters that's 2,000 too many.
In the lead up to her son's birth, Jacqueline made plans to call 911 for an ambulance to pick her up from her North Florida home and transport her to a hospital about an hour away. The second-time mom and Guatemalan immigrant, who has lived in the country for a decade, would have relied on her husband to drive her to the hospital. But a few months ago he was deported, leaving Jacqueline and her daughter without the family's primary source of income,
Her story is part of a disturbing rise in pregnant people suddenly being approached by border patrol officers or plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. As ICE raids have devastated more families in recent months, immigrant and reproductive rights advocates have raised concerns about the impact of the raids on the reproductive health of those arrested, detained, and forcibly separated from their families.
