Technique lets children avoid inheriting certain diseases – and give them genes from another woman besides mom. Last week, the U.K. government issued proposed regulations that would allow researchers to try a new and controversial in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in patients. The technique could allow women who are carriers of mitochondrial disease to have healthy, […]

Doctors successfully transplanted wombs into nine women. Four women who underwent womb transplants have received embryos in an attempt to get pregnant, according to Swedish doctors. The women are the recipients of wombs from their mothers or other relatives, as part of an experiment to see whether a womb transplant can yield a successful pregnancy. The embryos are the […]

The growing percentage reflects, in part, the increasing average age at which women give birth for the first time. In 2012, more test-tube babies were born in the United States than ever before, and they constituted a higher percentage of total births than at any time since the technology was introduced in the 1980s, according […]

In vitro fertilization (IVF)—involving DNA from three parents—could become legal in the UK by July. The prospect of altering DNA to produce a genetically-modified human could move from science fiction to science reality by the middle of 2014.  The UK parliament is likely to vote on whether a new form of in vitro fertilization (IVF)—involving DNA from three […]

Breastfeeding is an important strategy to ensure a healthy balance of good bacteria in an infant’s gut.  Babies have legions of microbes that set up shop in their guts, skin, and more right from birth. These microbes are vital. They help the growing human to digest its food, and to keep harmful microbes away. They […]

Suhad Abu Fiad gets a prenatal ultrasound at a clinic in the West Bank city of Nablus. During a routine sonogram, Suhad Abu Fiad immediately tears up at the sight of her unborn baby’s tiny feet and fingers. She’s hoping for a girl but, as she’s only four months pregnant, it’s still too soon to tell. […]

First-borns around the world, it turns out, have higher IQ’s. According to a new study “those born earlier perform better in school” and, it’s because of the parents. Parents simply go easy on their later-born kids, according to data analyzed by economists V. Joseph Hotz and Juan Pantano, and as a result, first-born children tend […]

India’s booming surrogacy industry sees thousands of infertile couples hire the wombs of local women to carry their embryos through to birth. British restaurateur Rekha Patel, dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a […]

Surrogacy agencies in both countries say demand has risen rapidly in the last two years. Rich Chinese couples are hiring American women to serve as surrogates for their children, creating a small but growing business in $120,000 “designer” American babies for China’s elite.    

There were almost 4 million babies born to American women in 2012. According to statistics in a National Center for Health Statistics report released last week, fertility rates are leveling off for the first time since before the recession began as more American women are having babies in an improving economy.