Pregnancy gets weirder as we get rounder. What really goes on under wraps during those nine-plus months? From a hidden bias involving swelling bosoms to fetal cells in maternal brain, scientists have found a mother lode of surprising phenomena. Here are seven discoveries nobody really expects when she's expecting.

Like many other women wanting the most for their baby, I dutifully downed fish oil pills throughout my pregnancy. I had heard all about the brain-building virtues of essential fatty acids (especially DHA, docosahexaenoic acid), known collectively as omega-3s, which are found in fish such as salmon and sardines. These...

Here are some astonishing statistics: Among pregnant women, 1 in 450 doesn't know her status until week 20 or later (more than halfway through the pregnancy), and 1 in 2,500 is oblivious until she actually goes into labor.

I know what you're thinking because I've thought it too: it's...

Not long ago, a handful of scientists at the University of California at Irvine were curious about why some people live longer than others -- even within groups that have similar ethnic and educational backgrounds, disease risk profiles and are exposed to similar stressors in life. At heart, they knew...

Fifteen months ago I gave birth to a baby girl. The child is now a seam-popping twenty-five-plus pounds. Babies, they grow so quickly it's creepy -- my thoughts fast-forward through her teething years to the teens -- and I'm terrified. Problem is, my family lives in New York City where...

Of all the qualities that give an attractive person an edge, here's one that you've likely overlooked: the limbal ring, the dark circle around the iris. The limbal ring is the line that separates the colored part of the eye from the white (the sclera).

It's completely unconscious, the...

One evening at the end of my second trimester, a young man approached me in the dairy aisle of the grocery store. I was standing in front of the kefir display, with one hand on my back and the other over my enormous belly. He initiated a conversation about the...