A number of babies were born in Ireland just seconds past midnight as we welcomed the New Year.

Teenager Jackie Foley was told to sign a consent form under a fictitious name in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home. Her son was adopted and given a bogus name. Nearly half a century later, her treatment at the hands of State agencies has been as cold-hearted as that of the nuns, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The State seems terrified of what might happen if one mass grave is excavated but, without it, the living can never know peace, nor the dead rest, writes Donal O’Keeffe.

It is June 6, 1969, and Spain is living through the final years of Franco’s dictatorship. At a clinic in Madrid, a woman gives birth to a baby girl she will never see again, writes Federico López-Terra.

Latest: The Irish Penal Reform Trust says young mothers should only be sent to prison as a last resort.

The first baby born in Ireland in 2018 arrived in Limerick at just seven seconds past midnight yesterday.

Expectant parents of babies with fatal foetal conditions who travel to Britain for a termination have to use freezer bags in order to keep their bodies cold in coffins when crossing back over the Irish Sea, the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment will hear today.

Suzanne Harrington meets the Irish midwife working at London’s exclusive five-star maternity hospital.

A beauty therapist dismissed for being pregnant received a paltry €5,179 in compensation this week. That is no deterrent, and one wonders if employers would be more accommodating if men gave birth, writes Clodagh Finn.

About 65,000 babies are born in Ireland every year and over 130m globally, with parents here spending up to €5,000 on baby products in that first year. That’s a big market.

Around 600 babies are born with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in Ireland each year.

Babies and toddlers can be deprived of sleep by using smartphones and tablets, research suggests.

It was a hell of a lot better than being stuck in class doing spellings — such was Kacper Ciolek’s assessment of the 10-year birthday celebrations at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) where he was star of the show.