Around 5,000 families who believe that a mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, found in many vaccines causes the development of autism have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims. The families allege vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children.

Autism is a developmental disability which usually appears in children during their first 36 months. Once an uncommon disorder in the United States, the incidence of autism is now occurring at epidemic rates

Nordic countries dominate the top while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominate the bottom levels of the best and worst places to be a mother and a child.

The Mother's Index of US-based global humanitarian organization Save the Children highlighted in the organization's State of the World's Mothers 2008 report compares the well-being of mothers and children in 146 countries

The U.S. breastfeeding rate has hit an all time high in the past 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

More than three out of four new moms now breast-feed their infants, the report said. About 77 percent of new mothers breast feed, at least briefly, up from 60 percent in 1993-1994, a survey found

Most women in Britain feed their babies through bottles and not by breastfeeding. A series of posters hopes to change that.

Best Beginnings, a charity which focuses on promoting breastfeeding, held a poster-making contest for students at the Central St. Martin's School of Art and Design

The federal government is deciding whether it will continue to fund abstinence only education in schools since the CDC released findings this year that one in four girls has a sexually transmitted disease.

Another reason some feel abstinence only programs do not work is that the U.S has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in developed countries, at about 750,000 a year