Here’s one way not to prevent a young girl from getting pregnant: Ask her to care for a virtual baby. New research finds that teenagers given lifelike baby dolls (pictured) as part of a program to dissuade them from wanting a real baby became pregnant at a higher rate than peers in a control group. The study followed 3000 Australian girls who enrolled when they were between 13 and 15 years old and were followed until they turned 20. Only half the group received the intervention, which encourages girls to think twice about becoming pregnant because babies have intensive, constant needs that can compromise a teenager’s lifestyle and goals.

Lily Gurton-Wachter surveys the literature of pregnancy and new motherhood, from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Rivka Galchen.

Paracetamol, commonly known as Panadol and Tylenol, has long been considered a safe medication for pregnant women to take for pain, fever, and even the flu. But a new study suggests that the risk of children experiencing autism spectrum disorder symptoms can be traced back to their mom’s use of OTC painkillers. A team of researchers in Spain studied 2,644 mother-child pairs, starting with pregnancy and going through the child’s fifth birthday. Women were asked if they ever took paracetamol during pregnancy, and if so, if their use was sporadic or persistent.

When the nurse first told me, mid-labor, that there were methamphetamines in my system, I cracked up laughing at the absurdity. When child services showed up, it stopped being funny. By Maggie Downs.

For years, Zofran was the most popular morning-sickness medication in the U.S. Now it’s being accused of causing birth defects. The larger issue is a drug-safety system that excludes women from clinical trials, potentially putting them and their babies at risk.

For the first time in history, scientists have found a way to safely send drugs into the placenta during pregnancy. This finding holds the possibility of one day being able to avoid premature births and treat common complications that often occur during early pregnancy. At least 10 percent of pregnant women experience serious complications due to error in placenta functioning. This new way of administering drugs without harming the fetus could eliminate such malfunction.

Ana Gabriela do Prado Paschoal sat at a desk in a small medical exam room and began a familiar, heartbreaking ritual. Your baby’s head is smaller than normal, Dr. Paschoal told the anxious mother, who had contracted the Zika virus while pregnant.

Janet Jackson might soon become the new symbol of the rise of the 50-year-old mom. The 49-year-old singer/songwriter, who turns 50 next month, announced to fans in a video on Twitter on Wednesday that she would be delaying the second leg of her "Unbreakable" world tour because she and her husband are focused on family planning. "I thought it was important that you be the first to know. My husband and I are planning our family, so I'm going to have to delay the tour," she said with a smile.

Holly Cave wants to know why her pregnancy ended at nine weeks. There are no easy answers, but talking about miscarriage could help us change the way we think about it.

Four prison guards in northern Vietnam have been suspended for alleged negligence after a female inmate on death row for drug trafficking became pregnant, which means her death sentence will be commuted to life in prison once her child is born, the AP reports. The Thanh Nien newspaper says Nguyen Thi Hue, 42, was arrested in 2012 for drug trafficking and sentenced to death in 2014. A court rejected her appeal the same year.

Some governments responded to the Zika epidemic by asking women to delay getting pregnant. Missionary doctor David Vanderpool says the reality for women in Zika-affected areas is far more complex.

In response to Zika virus, officials are promoting a two-year ban on pregnancy in El Salvador—where abortions are illegal and birth control is hard to come by.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel alert late Friday that advises pregnant women to avoid traveling to Brazil and about a dozen countries in the Americas where a mosquito-borne virus has been linked to brain damage in babies. Local transmission of the Zika virus has been found in 16 countries and territories: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico...

Dealing with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy is a difficult experience for anyone. But for teenagers, who have to juggle increasing, and increasingly complicated, financial and legal barriers to abortion access, “difficult” becomes nearly impossible. And it shouldn’t be. For instance, 21 states require parental consent before a teenager can have an abortion; 13 mandate that at least one parent be notified; and five states mandate both consent and notification.

When I look at what women face giving birth in America today, I notice some historical issues resurfacing. We've come a long way over the past century, but there's a long journey ahead before pregnancy and childbirth are safe for every mother. What surprises me the most is that the United States is the only developed country whose maternal mortality has been consistently on the rise since 1990.

When she miscarried in her mid-30s, Alexandra Kimball felt profoundly alone: abandoned by a feminist movement that didn't recognize her loss, accused by conventional wisdom of waiting too long to conceive, and deprived by society of the rituals that mark other forms of grief.

Traditionally, expectant mothers have been excluded from clinical trials, but could this practice be doing more harm than good? Emily Anthes investigates.

Find out how your age affects pregnancy -- and what you can to do ensure that both you and your developing baby are safe and healthy.