As pregnancies increase among British women and female migrants, midwives are suffering the brunt of higher birth rates in the country. The number of expectant mothers midwives have been caring for grew on the average by 6.5 percent over the past six years.

But in some areas, like the East Midlands, the figure is at an alarming 25 percent hike for the same period. The growing gap between birthing women and midwives indicates the inability of the government to fulfill its promise that by 2009 every woman in the U.K. must have one midwife throughout her pregnancy. And that every pregnant woman should be given the choice to deliver at home or in the hospital

A general strike by abortion clinic workers has reached its fifth day as protesters say the employees are unfairly prosecuted. The walk off closed 40 abortion clinics across the Catholic country where abortion is legal.

Francisca Garcia Gallego, a regional director of the Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics, said the strikes will affect 2,000 Spanish women who want to terminate their pregnancies. Nonetheless, the striking clinics will still take in emergency cases, Gallego said

The American Academy of Pediatrics updated earlier suggestions, which made parents feel like they were not doing their best to prevent their children from food allergies, asthma and allergic rashes. The AAP says breast-feeding helps prevent babies' allergies, but there's no factual evidence to show that taking certain foods during pregnancy stage, either using soy formula or delaying introduction of solid foods beyond six months could also be helpful.

The doctors group advised mothers of infants in August 2000 that mothers with family history of allergies should avoid taking cow's milk, fish, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts while breast-feeding

The annual hospital bill Americans pay may reach $1 trillion by 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The amount is based on the average 4.5 percent yearly rate of increase over the last several years in the national hospital bill.

U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 - a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997. The 2005 bill, adjusted for inflation, represents the total amount charged for 39 million hospital stays

Folklore surrounding pregnancy persists in modern America despite advances in medical interventions.

Many Americans, for example, believe maternal thoughts and actions contribute to adverse fetal outcomes, says Jonathan Schaffir, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State University