Parents, rejoice if you live in New York—because New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a press release that beginning in 2025, New York employees will receive 20 hours of paid prenatal care leave. The best part? This allows employees to attend appointments without cutting into their existing 12 weeks of paid family leave.  And it doesn’t stop there when it comes to making life easier for parents. Per HR Dive, “In addition, employers must provide up to 30 minutes of paid break time for nursing employees to express breast milk for up to three years after a child’s birth.” Breastfeeding mam ..read more

The old adage goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” but we sometimes forget that trying to conceive (TTC) requires just as much community support.  “One of the biggest hurdles surrounding infertility and miscarriages is that individuals or couples can feel very isolated during their journey,” explains Temeka Zore, MD, FACOG, fertility specialist at Spring Fertility. “Support groups can take the isolation away that surrounds infertility and give individuals and couples a community to find shared experiences and successes.”  According to the CDC, 1 in 8 couples struggle wit ..read more

Sometimes, hope is all you have left. Louise Warneford, who suffered through 18 miscarriages and 16 rounds of expensive IVF treatments in her quest to become a mother, never fully lost hope. And finally, at age 48, the UK-based writer and her husband, Mark, successfully gave birth to a Miracle baby boy using a donor embryo, which they had tried several times before without success. In her book, Baby Dreams, Warneford writes about never being able to make it past the 14-week mark in any pregnancy, but how she refused to give up on her dream to become a mother. “When William was placed in my arm ..read more

Two weeks before my 42nd birthday, I realized I was missing my period. It was gorgeous out, so I walked down to my local Target and did something I hadn’t done in 11 years—I bought a pregnancy test. We had been trying to conceive for about three years, but each month my period showed up like a bad guest—right on time and uninvited. But this time the test lit up like a Christmas tree. We were thrilled and cautious. As it turned out, we were right to be cautious. At 13 weeks I lost the baby. A year later, almost to the day, I got pregnant again. It was just before my 43rd birthday and felt like ..read more

[Editor’s note: A letter to a caring husband. While this is one example of one type of relationship, we understand, appreciate, and celebrate that relationships come in all forms and configurations.] My love, If I haven’t thanked you enough already for everything, I’d like to say it again—thank you. As I sit here, sipping my tea on a quiet, peaceful morning, I can barely contain the waves of happiness I have for where we are right now. If I were to dip my toes in the art of being cheesy (I mean, why not?), I would say that I’m trying to tame a tsunami tide of gratitude and love for you. W ..read more

Moms, it’s time to relax. You’ve earned it! While watching your belly expand before your eyes, odds are that your shoulders are tight and tense, your lower back is aching or those poor feet are begging for some love (hopefully not all of the above!). Enter the prenatal massage and the greatest city to get one in: NYC! We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite spots around town to lie back and be pampered for an hour or two. A Few Pointers Before You Get a Prenatal Massage in NYC: Most doctors advise delaying prenatal massages until you are in your second trimester as there are specific pressure ..read more

During pregnancy, you are indeed eating for two. It’s not that you can eat as much as you want, but that baby’s development is completely dependent on your health. So it’s important to keep up with a wholesome, nutritional diet, and one of the most important nutrients you need to get is protein. You use protein, either from animal or vegetable sources, in every critical function of the body. Not only is it the building block of life (every cell in the human body actually has protein), it also is necessary to break down food for absorption, to carry oxygen around your body, to grow hair and nai ..read more

If you’re anything like most mamas-to-be, you’ve become very aware of what you put on and in your body. You’re reading labels, avoiding undercooked food, and steering clear of any restaurant with a grade-pending sign in the window. And if you’re an aromatherapy enthusiast, you may have put away your trusty bottles of essential oils. But, what if I told you you don’t have to say goodbye to most of your favorite oils? You just need to know how to use them. Equipped with the right info, most women can safely use essential oils throughout their pregnancy. With these five steps, you’ll be well on y ..read more

You may think of high blood pressure as a problem you’ll have to confront when you’re older, but it turns out, many pregnant women deal with it too. Hypertension can be common in pregnancy but can lead to complications—from preeclampsia to low birth weight to higher risk of placenta abruption (placenta separating from the uterus before labor) to kidney problems. If you were diagnosed with gestational hypertension or are at risk of developing it during pregnancy, it’s important to find a way to keep your blood pressure under control; and since a lot of hypertension medications are not recommend ..read more

By the time you hit your third trimester, baby is heavy, and your body is preparing for birth. This can lead to some aches, pains and unwanted ailments that can actually keep you up at night! Want to get some good sleep before baby gets here and you have to do post-midnight feeds and diaper changes? Here are 5 reasons why you’re likely tossing and turning during the final stretch of pregnancy and what you can do to soothe some of these pregnancy insomnia woes. Motherly's Digital Classes Your body in the third trimester $Free The home stretch and so many questions! This quick class is design ..read more