(Nature) – Data from 300,000 births reveal how essential biological measurements are altered by carrying and delivering a baby.

Biologists have built one of the most detailed pictures ever of the changes that occur in women’s bodies before and after pregnancy, by pooling and studying around 44 million physiological measurements from more than 300,000 births.

The gigantic study, which used the anonymized results of blood, urine and other tests taken before, during and more than a year after pregnancy, reveals the scale of the toll that carrying a baby and childbirth take on the body — from the myriad changes made to support a fetus to the effects of its abrupt departure from the body during birth. (Read More)