Compared with Zika and cytomegalovirus, the virus that causes COVID-19 appears to have a harder time penetrating the placenta and moving to a woman’s unborn baby.

The virus rarely spreads from mother to child before birth, but it can—and researchers are starting to investigate the path it takes.

Tiny doses of maternal poo mixed with breast milk and given to Cesarean-born infants makes their gut microbiota resemble those of babies born vaginally.

Transcripts circulating in the blood provide real-time information about maternal, fetal, and placental health.

Upon seeing pregnant women sick with COVID-19 at a University of Pennsylvania hospital, researchers there wrote trial protocols for blood transfusions to treat the disease that include expecting mothers.

Lactation boosts the quantity and quality of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, likely reducing a woman’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Researchers find connective tissue has a crucial role to play in whether cancer cells metastasize.

Before the joey is born, another pregnancy has already started.

From bubbling plants to endangered whales, here are some amazing images from The Scientist in 2019.