What is the zwischen? The last few days and weeks of pregnancy as you wait for your baby to be born are not easy, but take heart. This special time is doing so much while you do so little!

Birth workers are generally obsessed with this amazing temporary organ, yet many parents-to-be are at best oblivious to its wonder and at worst horrified and disgusted by the sight and very thought of it. So what’s so special about your placenta anyway?

This Morning’s resident GP, Dr Zoe Williams, had spent enough time working in obstetrics to feel that an elective caesarean would probably be her choice of birth - but after enlisting the support of a doula she elected for a homebirth. Williams explains why, and how the decision changed her whole approach to birth.

Local yoga teacher and mum of two Claire Grundy wasn’t always a yoga bunny, but finding her practice helped her gain much more than just strength and suppleness. Here shares her tips for yoga in pregnancy.

From whether the pregnancy and birth will be different, to what to buy to make life easier on the other side, the best advice comes from those who have been there and done it.

From the hospitals that serve the area to the homebirth provisions for women in South West London, we explore birth in SW London

What does “natural birth” mean? And is that what I should be aiming for? Terms explained and myths debunked.

Is there a trick to make sure breastfeeding will be successful first time? We look at the truth of what really works

The secrets that parents who’ve survived the newborn phase wish they’d known - including the things that no one tells you until you’re in the thick of it.

A doula isn’t a midwife or an obstetrician, and they aren’t all healers or hippies - so what is a doula and can having one really change your birth?

Labour without pain or fear - is it really possible? And if it is, why is pain the first thing anyone mentions when talking about childbirth?