Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is a liver condition of late pregnancy that causes intense itching and, more importantly, raises the level of substances called bile acids in a mother's blood. Those bile acids reach the baby, and when the level is high the pregnancy carries a greater chance of…

Europe's largest recorded outbreak of parvovirus B19 — the "slapped cheek" virus — swept through 2023 and 2024, and four studies published in 2025 now show what it meant for pregnancy. The reassuring finding is that the virus does not appear to have become more dangerous. The demanding one is that…

Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy complication that can force a baby to be born weeks earlier than planned, and a daily low-dose aspirin tablet started early in pregnancy is the one treatment shown to push that moment later. Four studies published in 2025 and 2026 looked at who gets offered that tablet…

Doctors have known for fifty years that alcohol during pregnancy can harm a developing baby. What they still cannot do reliably is work out which babies were affected, because the only routine test is to ask the mother — and many women who did drink say that they did not. Four studies published in…

A sacrococcygeal teratoma is a tumour that grows at the base of a baby's spine before birth. It is the most common tumour found in newborn babies, it is almost always non-cancerous, and most babies who have one go on to do well after surgery to remove it. Four studies published between April 2025…

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a birth defect in which a gap in the muscle below the lungs lets organs from the abdomen move up into the chest, leaving the lungs too small to work well at birth. Some babies can be helped by an operation performed before they are born, and whether a family is…

A short cervix found midway through pregnancy is one of the clearest signs that a baby may arrive too early. For twenty years, doctors have been testing whether a small silicone ring called a cervical pessary can hold a pregnancy longer. Three studies published in 2025 and 2026 give three different…

Chorioamnionitis is inflammation of the membranes and placenta that surround a baby before birth. It is one of the commonest reasons babies are born early, and four studies published between 2025 and 2026 found that the diagnosis doctors make during labour often does not match what the placenta…

Some babies grow too slowly before birth because the placenta — the organ that carries oxygen and nourishment from mother to baby — is not working properly. Doctors cannot repair a failing placenta, so the only real decision left is when to deliver. Four studies published in 2025 and 2026 examine…

Placenta accreta spectrum is a condition in which the placenta grows too deeply into the wall of the womb and cannot separate normally after birth. It is nearly always linked to a previous caesarean scar, and it makes delivery a carefully planned operation with a real risk of heavy bleeding. Four…

Two recent research reviews looked at what happens when cannabis is used in pregnancy. Together they suggest that exposed babies are, on average, slightly smaller and slightly more likely to be born early or need intensive care, and that as children grow, the differences that appear are in…

Sometimes the bag of fluid around a baby breaks far too early — in the middle of pregnancy, months before a baby could survive outside the womb. Four studies published in 2026, from France, the United States, Germany, and Austria, followed what happened to these pregnancies and to the children born…