Throughout both of my pregnancies, my antenatal and postnatal care was shared between my GP and the local midwife team. For me, this shared care worked incredibly well and I always felt very well looked after (my GP even paid me a home visit after both of my children were born).

 So I was heartened to read about the new report published by the King's Fund which suggests that GPs should and would like to be more involved in caring for their pregnant patients 

 Thirty years ago it was commonplace for GPs to have a very involved role in antenatal care - with some doctors delivering babies themselves! However the professionalisation of midwifery and hospital maternity services has seen this role all but disappear.

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It's not often that a 'celebrity' gets my back up to the point of having to vent my fury in a blog, but in this case, model Gisele can't go unpunished!

Ever since having a baby seven months ago, Gisele has taken it upon herself in a series of gushing interviews to act as an authority on all things maternal.

Firstly, according to Gisele, giving birth doesn't hurt. In fact, after giving birth at home she got up and made pancakes. Of course! Because that was at the forefront of my mind straight after giving birth.

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It's generally agreed that we are turning into a fat nation, and now experts are suggesting that one in every 1,100 pregnant women in the UK is "extremely obese". OK, so it's still a fairly low percentage, but it is worth reading the below points if you are very overweight as being overweight in pregnancy poses a risk to mothers but can also increase harm to unborn babies.

Previous research has shown that obese pregnant women have more chance of developing blood clots, needing a Caesarean section, wound infections and complications with anaesthesia.

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OK, so we know that pregnancy provides a good excuse to pile on a bit of extra weight and indulge in the odd doughnut or two, but a fat-laden diet during pregnancy may lead to an increased risk of breast cancer that is passed down generations, say scientists.

Pregnant women who dine on junk food could unwittingly be risking the future health of not only their daughters but also their grand-daughters, research suggests.

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I know that when I was pregnant, I paid little attention to what shoes I wore. To be honest, if I could actually squeeze them on or put them on without having to bend over, then that worked for me!

However The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists are warning that some pregnant women may be risking the health of their feet in the name of fashion.

The weight gain and hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy have a huge impact on the body. The softening and stretching of muscles and ligaments can mean the wrong type of footwear can put extra strain on the feet and ankles.

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Despite having unprecedented access to information regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting a recent study has revealed that mums-to-be still think their own mothers know better than the medical profession.

A University of London research team spoke to women who gave birth in the 1970s, 1980s and the 2000s. What they found was although modern women were more likely to take a mixture of advice, they were still more likely to follow family wisdom.

Professor Paula Nicolson from Royal Holloway, University of London, who led the study, said: "When it comes to the crunch - if women feel sick for example - they will take their mother's or their grandmother's advice.

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Being married myself to a Scot, I am very much aware of how proud they are of their heritage.

However, I would have had to draw the line at  driving 500 miles to give birth in order for said child to be born in Scotland.

But for Leanne McDermaid of Aldershot in Hampshire, driving 500 miles to Arbroath in Angus was part and parcel of being married to a proud scot.

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Although it might seem like good advice at the time, for one Berkshire woman being told to "keep your legs crossed" was an exercise in futility.

 Charlotte Duly, from Newbury was on the M4 with her husband, travelling to hospital when their son, Ignatius, was born.

Mrs Duly said: "As soon as we got on the M4 I thought actually this might be it, then my husband  didn't believe me and just carried on driving.

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A new study by researchers at University College London (UCL) claims that premature babies are more sensitive to pain than their full-term counterparts.

The researchers believe that invasive tests such as tube feeding, blood tests and injections are a key cause of this apparent sensitisation. They are now calling for better pain management for premature babies in intensive care.

This latest research, which is due to be published in the journal NeuroImage, supports previous research that reported increased pain sensitivity in older children who were born prematurely.

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British buggy manufacturer Maclaren has agreed to compensate over 40 children who suffered fingertip injuries in the hinge mechanism of some models of collapsible buggies.

Maclaren said the compensation was "not an admission of liability" and it took children's safety "very seriously".

 Now lawyers representing the children will meet with Maclaren to decide how much they will be awarded

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John Lewis have teamed up with Philips AVENT to host a Feeding Awareness Week from 2-8 May.

 The aim is to give parents and parents-to-be practical advice on one of the biggest parts of early parenting. Throughout the week, stores will run product demonstrations, competitions and expert advice.

For more information please click here.

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Although many women experience a degree of morning sickness during  pregnancy, an unlucky few will suffer from excessive vomiting (or hyperemesis gravidarum) which can require hospital treatment.

Now Norwegian researchers, from a study of 2.3 million births, have identified that pregnant women are three times more likely to suffer from the condition if their mothers did.

Hyperemesis can be extremely debilitating and is the most common cause of admission to hospital in early pregnancy.

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One of the UKs most respected parenting experts has claimed that leaving babies to cry can lead to problems in later life.

Dr Penelope Leach, author of the popular 70's parenting manual Your Baby And Child: From Birth To Age Five, said: 'It is not an opinion but a fact that it's potentially damaging to leave babies to cry. Now we know that, why risk it?'

Speaking to The Independent, Dr Leach was quick to dimiss the current trend for 'controlled crying', stating that babies did not have the mental maturity to known when it is the right time to go to sleep.

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As the mother of a winter baby, who also happens to have a serve food allergy, I was interested to read about a recent American study which claimes babies born in autumn and winter appear to be more prone to food allergies.

US researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston believe the trend may be explained by a lack of vitamin D or the 'sunshine vitamin. Experts have long believed that the vitamin D gained from natural sun exposure is needed for the healthy development of a child's immune system.

Dr Milo Vassallo, lead author of the study and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "Vitamin D helps the body fight infection and suppresses its allergy cells.

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The number of fathers who give up work to look after their children has apparantly soared ten-fold during the past decade, according to research carried out by Aviva.

Around 6% of UK fathers, equivalent to 600,000 people, now consider themselves to be their child's primary carer, up from just 60,000 who said this 10 years ago.

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Did you know that there  are more than 14 million grandparents in the UK, with one in three families depending on them for childcare and more than 300,000 children being raised by their grandparents?

If your parents or inlaws fall into this category, you may be interested to hear that a guide advising grandparents how to provide help to their families has just been launched.

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I really do wonder if the world has gone mad sometimes as a magazine advert for SMA formula milk has been banned for indirectly promoting its use from birth as it showed a baby pulling itself up on an armchair with a tagline reading: "For every stage, a formula."

Apparantly, three readers complained that SMA was "socially irresponsible" for indirectly promoting the use of formula for babies under six months.

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You may well have heard the term 'preg-head', which basically refers to how your memory goes rather pear-shaped when you get pregant and now new research seems to back this theory as amongst the many odd effects pregnancy can have, one of them appears to be increasing the risk of losing things.

Scientists found women in the later stages of pregnancy tend to suffer a loss of spatial memory - the memory of locations and positions of objects.

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Pregnant women could be given the right to choose where to give birth by law under proposals being considered by the Government.

Any risks to the mother and child would have to be taken into account, but the plan could see parents given the right to choose a home birth, hospital birth or one in a midwifery-led centre.

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Drinking red wine with a meal, going for a run before you eat or eating cheese afterwards are some of the ways people mistakenly think they can boost the iron in their diet, according to a new survey by online health resource, meatandhealth.com.

The survey also found that more than half of women surveyed believe that spinach is the best source of iron. In fact, you would need to eat a large amount of spinach to get the same amount of iron as there is in a 4oz sirloin steak.

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