The Science Baby Podcast

Coming home with a newborn can feel overwhelming. Luckily, from time to time in your little one’s early life, you can expect to be visited by specially trained nurses and midwives, to check up on how you and baby are doing. These health visits and developmental reviews can be exciting, daunting, reassuring, and confusing. Leila and Kim break down what to expect, and share their own intimate experi...

If your baby is restless, grumpy, drooly, off their food, off their sleep, or generally just having a hard time, there's a good chance that teeth are the culprit. Born with adorable gummy smiles, babies earn their toothy grins over the first two years of their lives or so. And then, a few years later, they have to do it all over again. In this episode, Leila and Kim delve into the surprisingly mur...

You’ve just spent nine months growing a baby, but the journey doesn’t end the moment you give birth. When the baby is out, you might be tempted to think that everything - your body, your emotions, your life - will go back to normal. But for both new mothers and their babies, there’s an adjustment period popularly known as the Fourth Trimester. Kim and Leila unpack what’s going on, and how it can l...

When both of our children were newborns, both Kim and Leila were told, repeatedly, that they looked just like their dads. Which, to be honest, wasn't always what we wanted to hear. We explore why it might be a good idea to look like your dad, what the science actually says, and how sometimes resemblance is all in the eye of the beholder.  In this episode: We talk about our own babies' features, an...

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 star...

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 pr...

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...

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 introd...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: Leil...

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,...

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 pare...

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 c...

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 th...

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 th...