When you become a parent, your thoughts become consumed by poop. From meconium to potty training, the biology of babies' poop is possibly one of the weirdest things in the world. 

In this episode: 

• Our personal experiences with poop
• What is poo, what is meconium, and why is baby poo so colourful
• The gut microbiome and vaginal seeding
• The diminishing gastrocolic reflex
• Why mums love the smell of their babies' poo

There is a fundamental conflict between how babies sleep and how adults sleep, and it's causing us way more stress than it needs to.

In this episode: 

• Our personal experiences with out babies' sleep
• The biology of sleep, including sleep-wake homeostasis and circadian rhythms
• Helen Ball and colleagues' book 'How Babies Sleep'
• The science of sleep cycles and sleep consolidation
• Differences between children
• Cultural pressures
• How to cope, including cosleeping advice

It's the very first installment of The Science Baby Podcast!

A chance for you to get acquainted with your hosts, Leila and Kim. We're two science communicators and first time mums trying to understand the science behind pregnancy, birth and beyond.

In this episode:

• Our respective journeys to motherhood
• Our professional and nerdy backgrounds
•  We chat about matrescence, maternal mental health and the medicalization of birth
• Why we want to make this podcast, and what you can expect

Social media can be a great tool for discovering new people and new things (like this podcast!) but for new, impressionable, and unsure parents, it can often do more harm than good. 

In this episode:

• The era we're living in right now is shaped by our interactions on social media
• How algorithms work to find and serve what you secretly want
• Our personal experiences with social media through our parenting journeys
• How social media has evolved in recent years
• The fundamental need for social comparison and how social media is changing that
• What we can do to protect ourselves

Find more Science Baby content at thesciencebaby.com 

Mothers these days might be told that 'breast is best' when it comes to feeding their baby. But what does that mean for mothers that struggle with their breastfeeding journey? We dive into the chemistry of breastmilk and formula, as well as the science behind the choice you make. 

In this epsiode:

• We compare our very different baby feeding experiences - Kim has breastfed, while Leila never nursed, but used a combination of pumping and formula.
• The history of breastfeeding for mammals and our species, as well as the development of modern infant formula
• What exactly is in formula and in breast milk
• How breast milk is made from blood and bones
• How breast milk changes dynamically in response to your baby 
• What the data shows about the differences breastmilk vs formula makes. 

Some of the information in this episode comes from Emily Oster's brilliant book Cribsheet, which you can buy for yourself here.

And if you have a snotty baby and you don't want to do it the old-fashioned way, you can find a multitude of snot suckers out there:

• Bulb
• Snot Pooter
• Motorised thingummy (aka a nasal aspirator)

Note: the shopping links here are affiliate links which earns us a very modest commission to help fund this podcast.  

As babies and toddlers learn to move around and experience the world, they're soon going to be accumulating injuries, whether from their own fingernails or from the inevitable bumps and scrapes of toddlerdom.

But no sooner do those injuries appear, than they heal, uncannily quickly, and rarely leaving behind any scars at all. We dive into what's going in inside their tiny Wolverine bodies to give them this super-healing ability. 

In this epsiode:

• We spend a bit of time catching up, including an update on Kim and Stella's weaning journey
• We share experiences of our little ones injuring themselves and then healing without a trace
• We discuss growth and skin renewal rate, and how that changes through life
• How this manifests itself in baby fingernails and toenails growing incredibly quickly
• We dive deep into the cellular biology of healing and scarring, exploring the role of collagen and other cells in rebuilding the skin, as well as a balanced immune response to protect and regulate, and the overall instructions given by our genes. Through this, we push the analogy of building a skyscraper to its limit. 
• Also, a brief mention of the role of stem cells, although those will get their own episode at some point in the future, too.

When your baby is a few months old, it's time to start facing down the next big milestone in your parenting journey: weaning them onto solid foods. But while the official guidance is clear, the advice you get from different people can vary. So when should you start the process?

Right now, Kim is just about to start weaning, and Leila is shocked to discover that she and Felix have been at the solid foods game for over two years. So this is a great opportunity to compare notes on when is the right time to wean your baby, as well as some of the things to look out for in those early months. 

In this episode:

• We share our expectations and experiences with weaning onto solids
• A bit of historical context about weaning timing, explaining why recommendations have swung from one year, to 4 months, and back again
• Is baby's digestive system really that immature? What's actually going on inside their bodies as they transition from milk to food
• What are the signs that you should look for that your baby is ready for weaning?
• An important chat about choking risk - why it happens and how to mitigate it
• A final note on allergens, and how advice has changed over the years

Solid Starts is the app that we mention in this episode, which helps to guide you on appropriate foods to introduce, and how to prepare them for babies of different ages. 

https://solidstarts.com/app/ 

Around three months after giving birth, many women are alarmed to find their hair starting to fall out. Although this is a pretty ubiquitous anacdote shared among new mothers, the science - where it exists - tells us that it might not be a real phenomenon.

In this episode, Leila and Kim dive into the pitiful research that has been done to figure out if postpartum hairloss is a real thing, and what might be causing it.

In this episode:

• We compare notes on our hair growth during pregnancy and its subsequent loss after birth.
• A brief review of the limited research that's been done into postpartum hair loss.
• We consider whether this hair loss is a real thing, or if it's all in our heads. 
• A run down on how hair grows normally, and how this growth cycle is changed by the transformative process of having a child. 
• How the amount and timing of hair loss is affected by things like breastfeeding and the seasons
• How and why our babies also lose hair, and how that's tied to many of the same processes. 
• What we can do about postpartum hair loss

On average, one in every four pregnancies ends in loss, and yet miscarriage, stillbirth, and pregnancy loss are still taboo subjects in many cultures. As a result, women who go through it experience shame, guilt, and loneliness which is entirely a product of attitude, and not science. This Baby Loss awareness week, we want to cast a light on a not at all uncommon phenomenon. 

In this episode:

• Leila and Kim share and compare their personal experiences of pregnancy loss and how it has changed their attitudes to actually having a child
• A look at the frequency of pregnancy loss, and the documented causes
• We dissect how the language we use shapes the way we and others think about pregnancy loss. 
• Some advice on what to say to someone going through a pregnancy loss
• How pregnancy losses are treated in the workplace, and how that's beginning to change.

Find out more about Baby Loss Awareness Week: https://babyloss-awareness.org/

Charities that can offer support and guidance for people going through pregnancy loss:

https://www.sands.org.uk/ 

https://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk/ 

Okay, maybe not everyone's relationship with their loved one is in the pan after having a child, but anecdotally and statistically, many parents find themselves facing relationship challenges with a little one in the mix. 

Leila and Kim are no exceptions, and we share a very cathartic chat about how and why our marriages have changed, and what we can do about it. 

In this episode:

• We set the scene by describing our relationship foundations before having kids
• We compare notes on how our relationships have changed since having kids
• We take a look at the statistics of relationship degeneration after having children, including results from the Science Baby Parenting Survey
• We examine the reasons behind the changes, including a loss of protective relationship behaviours, an unequal division of the mental load, and the snowballing effect of maternal gatekeeping
• We describe how our loss of personal identities contributes to our dissatisfaction at this stage of life
• We discuss a study that suggests that marital unhappiness could just be a product of western society 
• Finally, we talk about some of the tools and techniques for dealing with relationship issues. 

I'm a big fan of Philippa Perry's book "The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (And Your Children Will Be Glad You Did)", which you can buy here. 

How soon can you know whether your baby is going to be right or left handed, and what can that tell you about how their brains are developing? Kim and Leila dive into the surprising science that links dominant hand with language, emotion, genes, and the environment. And since Science Baby himself is a leftie, we consider his experience growing up in a right-handed world.

In this episode:

• We introduce the idea of handedness being potentially linked to language, noting that left lateralisation of language in the brain could be linked to the predominance of right-handers within humans.
• We talk about the genetic basis for handedness preference
• We discuss when a hand preference is likely to emerge in our babies and toddlers
• We examine how much the external environement can affect dominant hand use
• We use brian lateralisation again to explain why mothers tend to cradle their babies on the left, regardless of which is their dominant hand
• We discuss a study that found that kids who show an early preference for their right hand tend to be more advanced with language - noting its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opposite pattern seen in Science Baby
• We talk about the experience of our young left-handers in a right-hand world. 

Last episode, we talked about the practical side of IVF - who is eligible, what testing there is beforehand, and what the procedure actually entails. But we didn’t talk about any of the squishy human stuff: the ups and downs of being an IVF patient and parent. So this time around, we tackle the physical and psychological impacts of IVF, and some of the things you might want to consider before starting treatment.

In this episode:

• The idea that IVF might have some lasting impacts, something which Leila didn’t really consider while she was undergoing treatment
• The additional benefits of IVF, including genetic testing and bespoke medication
• How long the process takes, and how that feels when you’re in it
• How the treatment might change within and between IVF cycles
• The emotions you feel while undergoing treatment
• The emotions you feel after treatment
• How you feel physically during and after treatment
• How IVF mothers are treated as high-risk pregnancies, and the pressure for birth intervention
• The effects you feel after an IVF birth
• The possibility of longer lasting medical risks
• The likelihood of success with IVF treatment
• How you can support yourself throughout your IVF journey

We're back afer a short break over the holidays, and we're kicking off with a really special one. Leila's son Felix (the OG Science Baby) was brought into the world through the medical miracle that is IVF. But to anyone from the outside looking in (or thinking about going through it themselves), the whole process can be a bit of an overwhelming mystery. So in this episode, we break down the IVF process, from where it sits within the assistive reproductive landscape, to who is eligible, how to get referred, and the ins and outs of what's involved. 

In this episode:

• Leila's IVF Journey
• Introduction to the acronyms of assistive reproductive tech: IVF, ICSI, IUI, IVI
• Additional interventions possible with fertility treatment
• Who is eligible for IVF, privately and funded by the NHS
• How to get referred for IVF
• Fertility testing
• Details of IVF treatment
  • Down regulation
  • Ovarian stimulation
  • Trigger Injection
  • Egg collection and sperm collection
  • Fertilisation and embryo development
  • Multiples and embryo freezing
  • Embryo grading
  • Embryo transfer
  • Progesterone pessaries
• Frozen embryo transfer

Being mums and trying to make a podcast means that sometimes, things don't always go to plan! This episode, that means that we have a full house and not a little bit of chaos. Kim and Stella, and Leila and Felix take a look back at the last few months since the launch of The Science Baby Podcast, read your comments and answer your questions. Expect terrible audio, questionable continuity, and lots of real life tangents!

In this episode: 

• Welcome to my Codpast! Felix and Kim chat about what it's like to be 2, and we catch up on life and milestones
• We look back at the last few episodes and respond to your comments and questions:
  • Poop
  • Breastfeeding
  • Pregnancy Loss
  • Hair Loss
  • Weaning
  • Healing
• We answer your questions in a quick fire Q&A, and get some ideas for future podcast episodes!