Punishing women who use drugs during pregnancy deters them from seeking prenatal care and entering drug treatment programs, and the relevant policies may unfairly target poor or minority women.

Research findings that nutritional inadequacy and exposure to environmental toxicants, especially in utero and in early life, induce epigenetic changes that last throughout life raise complicated questions about maternal responsibility.

When deciding whether a pregnant woman will take antidepressants that pose a slight risk to the fetus, the patient and doctor must each make value-based determinations about whether absolute protection of the fetus is more important than preventing the mother’s probable suffering.

Is it sexist for a mentor to ask a student making career choices about her reproductive plans?

Obstetrics seems to be particularly resistant to making evidence-based changes to common practice, perhaps because of the emotional climate surrounding pregnant women and babies.

The responsibilities of motherhood have changed in the era of longer life expectancies. Women are often simultaneously caregivers for their children, grandchildren, and parents.

Participation in a research study—in which there are rigorous standards and close monitoring—may be a safer context for the use of medications in pregnancy than the clinical setting, where the evidence base is lacking.

To understand the place of reproduction in a woman’s life, we must look beyond conception and pregnancy to the responsibilities of motherhood across the lifespan.

Recommendation for induced lactation in nonbiological mothers is widespread in the medical literature. To resist offering the service for nongestating lesbian mothers bespeaks potential discrimination.

One of the major driving forces for migration by women is the availability of caregiving work in wealthier nations, so improving working conditions for migrant women and ensuring that elderly and other persons in need of care receive good care are intertwined goals.