The pressure to have a second child

There are far easier ways to screw up your kid than by making them an only child, says Eva Wiseman

Does running a mile a day really improve children’s lives?

The Scottish school that asked primary pupils to do 15 minutes of exercise every day started a global trend – and research suggests it really is transforming lives

Introduce mental health checks for new mothers, ministers told

Six-week checkup would help the 50% of UK mothers with mental health problems

I am 13 and hate what I see in the mirror

Being what you may think of as thin or pretty doesn’t change how you feel inside, says Annalisa Barbieri

You can smell a new mother’s loneliness. Unless you’re the state

As a new mum, I know loneliness cuts deep – and the lack of services for parent and child plays a large part in this, says the freelance writer Nell Frizzell

​’Before, I couldn’t walk 200m’​ – why surgery can be life-changing for super-obese children

As many as 90,000 children in England could be considered eligible for bariatric surgery, yet only 18 operations were performed last year. Shouldn’t there be many more?

Meet the tech evangelist who now fears for our mental health

Belinda Parmar was a passionate advocate of the digital revolution – but has started keeping her family’s smartphones and laptops locked away to protect her loved ones. Is she right to be so worried?

Babies’ sleep patterns can be challenging – here’s why you shouldn’t despair

On Baby Sleep Day, here are some insights that might help get you through the long, broken nights

Exercise is more precious than ever. So let’s stop scaring kids off PE

Cutting PE lessons to boost exam results is madness – especially as we now know physical activity aids academic performance, says the sports writer and author Anna Kessel

Discriminating against pregnant women is not just wrong, it’s foolish

Women are still hit by the motherhood penalty at work, with lower wages and stalled careers. If men did more childcare this would change, says Rowan Davies, head of policy at Mumsnet

Maude Julien: ‘How I escaped from my father’s cult’

Maude Julien’s father tried to turn her into a ‘superhuman’ through a series of cruel experiments. Now aged 60, she recalls how she survived

Wales bans intimate piercings for under-18s over health fears

Law forbids practitioners from working on areas including tongue, breast and genitals

‘I knew I was in labour’ – why are women being turned away from hospital during childbirth?

As a number of women recount how they were mistakenly told to go home and wait, before giving birth on the pavement or in a lift, experts warn that more investment in early-labour care is needed

Dentists warn of child tooth decay crisis as extractions hit new high

NHS surgeons removed multiple teeth from under-18s in England a record 42,911 times in 2016-17, figures show

Tech bosses limit their kids’ time on smartphones: why shouldn’t we?

Parents focus on harmful content, but limiting the time teenagers spend on mobile phones is imperative, writes author and academic Jean Twenge