A large study in 16 hospitals in Benin, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda tested whether training midwives, helping staff solve problems together and supporting ward leaders could make birth safer for babies. Once the programme was in place, the odds of a baby being stillborn during labour or dying…

In a large British trial, 799 very premature babies were given either the antibiotic azithromycin or a dummy medicine for ten days. Two follow-up studies then looked for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their airways and stool. The antibiotic did not prevent the lung disease it was meant to…

A birth weight percentile shows how a baby's weight compares with other babies of the same sex born at the same stage of pregnancy. A large study found that babies born higher within the "normal" range tended to gain weight a little faster as toddlers and were somewhat more likely to be overweight…

A few babies catch an infection from their mother before or around birth, most often a common virus called cytomegalovirus. A Swedish study of everyone born in the country over 35 years found that these rare infections, when diagnosed by doctors, were linked to higher chances of intellectual…

Premature babies on a breathing machine sometimes need their breathing tube put back in within days of it being removed. Three new studies looked at which babies are most likely to need this, whether a 3-minute breathing test works as well as a 10-minute one, and what it means afterwards. Being…

Large studies in Mali and Niger tested whether giving babies aged 1 to 11 months a dose of the antibiotic azithromycin every few months could prevent deaths in places where many young children die. Treating only babies did not save lives or help them grow, but it also did not noticeably raise…

Group B Strep is a common bacterium that can cause rare but serious infections in young babies. Two large studies from the Netherlands and Denmark found that these infections have become more common in Dutch babies despite antibiotics given during labour, that babies born very early tend to fall…

In the United States, babies born to Black mothers are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as babies born to White mothers. A study of nearly 58 million births found that early birth still explains most of this difference, but a growing part, now about one-third, comes from…

Many parents worry that an epidural in labour might harm their baby. Two large 2026 studies, of nearly half a million births in Scotland and almost 2,000 Swedish children followed to age eleven, found no evidence that epidurals increase the risk of serious newborn illness, death, cerebral palsy or…

Many parents-to-be with allergies in the family wonder whether eating more egg and peanut while pregnant and breastfeeding could protect their baby. A large Australian study of 2,137 pregnant women found that babies whose mothers ate lots of these foods were about as likely to have egg or peanut…

Many pregnant women take metformin, a blood-sugar tablet that also reaches the baby. Three new studies suggest that, compared with insulin injections, it slightly lowers the chance of low blood sugar after birth and does not appear to affect children's development when they start school, while one…

Before a very early birth, mothers are often given a drip of a medicine called magnesium sulphate to help protect the baby's brain. A 2026 update of the leading review of six trials confirms that it lowers the chance of cerebral palsy at age two, from about 58 to about 41 in every 1,000 children…