A national cohort study and confidential enquiry using data from the MBRRACE-UK dataset of deaths in pregnancy from 2014 – 2022 and in the year following pregnancy was conducted by a collaborative group including Oxford University, Birth Companions, Kings College London and others.

The 2025 Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, which includes information and data from 46 countries and multiple international experts and organisations, investigates what progress has been made in the last decade to reduce the rate of pre-term births.

Studies from both the United States and the UK have revealed a decline in the use of traditional, hormonal methods of contraception in Gen Z women (born between 1997 and 2012).  This is in part due to concerns over side effects, but also the effect of social media influencers on platforms such as TikTok (Pleasants et al., 2024).

Research carried out by Rutgers Health and Yale University suggests that being a parent may have benefits for brain function in later life. The study used family information and analysed brain scans from the UK Biobank, looking in particular at areas associated with movement, connection and senses as well as at how different areas of the brain communicate with each other. 

A stillbirth is widely defined as the loss of a foetus from 28 weeks’ gestation – a definition recommended by the World Health Organisation - and a miscarriage is defined as the loss of a pregnancy up to 20 weeks.