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In this section

• Man\'s genes \'key to baby\'s sex\'
  A man's genetic make-up may play a role in whether he has sons or daughters, a study of hundreds of years of family trees suggests.
• Unicef child study disputed by UK
  The UK government has complained about a study saying early years childcare and education in England is falling behind that of other developed nations.
• Pop tunes used to calm babies
  Rocking a baby to sleep has been given a whole new meaning as mothers ditch traditional lullabies for popular pop and rock tunes.
• Caesarean increases asthma risk
  Babies born by Caesarean section are more prone to developing asthma, say Dutch researchers.
• Left-handers\\\' lower test scores
  Left-handed pupils do less well in tests than their right-handed peers, a study from Bristol University suggests.
• Obesity \'programmed before birth\'
  Eating a high-fat diet in pregnancy may cause changes in the foetal brain that lead to over-eating and obesity early in life, research suggests.

Premature births are increasing

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of babies being born prematurely in England, a charity has warned.

Tommy's baby's charity highlights NHS figures showing 8.6% of babies were born early in 2006/7, after remaining around 7% for the previous 15 years.

It said the increase equated to an extra 10,554 premature births. Babies born early are at increased risk of dying or developing serious problems.

Experts said the rise was partly due to more older - and younger - mothers.

But the NHS Information Centre, which published the latest statistics, said there had been changes to the way data had been collected which might have affected the rise.

Read more.