There’s now a growing push to separate profound autism — in which people need constant care for life, have a certain level of intellectual disability and are nonspeaking or minimally verbal — into its own diagnosis. The hope is that it would help ensure people get the support and services they need and that research includes them.

The U.S. was once among only a few developed countries with a rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself — about 2.1 kids per woman. But it has been sliding in America for close to two decades as more women are waiting longer to have children or never taking that step at all.

As Congress debates whether new parents should be allowed to vote by proxy, Brandis Friedman reflects on the barriers faced by mothers working in politics.

The Senate vote was Democrats’ latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.”

The nonprofit Remember Him Remember Her has partnered with Nave Wellness Center to provide free monthly grief support groups to people navigating parental loss.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are two-and-a-half times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women. A new state law aims to remedy that by expanding insurance coverage during and after pregnancy. 

Through a decade of research and dozens of personal anecdotes, the book challenges conventional ideas around adoption in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

The law requires insurers that provide state-regulated health care plans to cover pregnancy and postpartum services for covered individuals, including midwife services, doula visits, and lactation consultants for up to 12 months after the end of a pregnancy.

Gen Zers, who were born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, have almost never known a world without social media. As adults, they’re now unraveling the effects of having their childhoods documented online.

After rediscovering the old photo, the father and son added a goal: not only did they want to fly together, they wanted to recreate the 1990s flight deck photo, over two decades later. Not just as father and son, but as colleagues and co-pilots.

More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around COVID-19 vaccines, experts say.

The federally mandated Early Intervention program is plagued by chronic staffing shortages nationwide, leaving thousands of desperate parents frustrated: They know their children need support, they’re aware of proven therapies that could make a difference, but they have to wait for months to get the help they need.

Having anywhere from one to four hours of screen time per day at age 1 is linked with higher risks of developmental delays in communication, fine motor, problem-solving and personal and social skills by age 2, according to the study.

From Ukraine to Highland Park, twin sisters Ellie and Natanya Sterling have taken their parents on the ride of a lifetime.

In the Chicago area, Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes is the only accredited milk bank. Despite a slow increase in supply, the bank is still providing this valuable resource.  

As of Jan. 1, any city employee who’s worked for at least one year will receive 12 weeks of paid parental time off. In a country that has zero guaranteed paid parental leave, Chicago is one of a handful of cities expanding this benefit.