Lana Citron

Wordsmith, Author and Accidental Mother

Previous marvelling at the human female form has now turned to gasps of bewilderment. I was seeing bits of my body I had never seen before and losing sight of other bits; my nipples were darkening, the bump beginning to feel heavy and the belly button on the turn - inside out.

Caroline Sandry

Fitness writer and presenter. Personal trainer and Pilates teacher. Loves yoga, running and the great outdoors.

It is finally sinking in: I am pregnant! When I catch a glimpse of my silhouette, it's not bloating that I see, but a baby! How very odd!

Preetam Kaushik

Freelance journalist

Medical experts say that an extreme bout of morning sickness usually indicates twins or even triplets! It means the royal stork will have to carry a heavy load. Except for Buckingham Palace the rest of Britain is worrying itself grey or bald over the complications a twin arrival would create.

Milli Hill

Freelance Writer, Founder of The Positive Birth Movement

It's not really surprising that so many women feel this way. The media portrayal of birth ranges from the rather ridiculous soap opera version - 'woman looking terrified and sweaty delivers baby in pub drama' - to programs like One Born Every Minute - 'woman looking terrified and sweaty begs for drugs in hospital drama'.

Bill Coles

Author and journalist

Let's coin a new term for the Royal Twins. Let's call them... The Pwins (Trademark pending). What if these twins happened to be a healthy little boy - and a healthy little girl... And now - the last and most wondrous step of all: What if the babies were delivered by Caesarean Section?

Kay Burley

Author and broadcaster

So ladies, if I can speak frankly, discovering you're pregnant by constantly throwing up your guts seems so unreasonable. It's an utter shock to both mind and body. Now I know that morning sickness is considered a common side effect to the early stages of pregnancy, but for some women it can be so much more debilitating than that. For a desperately unlucky few, it's potentially life threatening for the baby. My pregnancy experience was somewhere in the middle of the multi-coloured sickness spectrum.

Gideon Burrows

Author of Men Can Do It: The Real Reason Dads Don't Do Childcare

As we enter seven or eight months of closely monitoring the Duchess of Cambridge's progress with her pregnancy, we should remember one vital thing: This pregnancy is happening to a father too.

Wendy Powell

Founder of MuTu® System | Body Confidence for Mums | Exercise Specialist for Mums: Expectant, New + Not So New!

You could be all but starving yourself, as well as spending hours doing cardio workouts, and still that persistent layer of flab around your tummy refuses to budge. What's that all about? Well, basically, it's about ignoring how your body works.

Claire Surrey

Masters student in Health, Population and Society at the London School of Economics

The celebrity media's role in bringing a previously obscure maternal condition to the forefront of popular culture - just imagine the pub quiz questions to be mined from hyperemesis gravidarum's Wikipedia entry this week - carries important implications for health communication.

Liz Campbell

Director of the charity Wellbeing of Women

What all of the panel agreed was the impact that Wellbeing of Women had made improving women's health during each of their careers. I felt proud that even though we are quite a small number of people we have been able to save or improve thousands of women's lives.

Lana Citron

Wordsmith, Author and Accidental Mother

Almost 13 years ago, the BBC funded my short, I was the Cigarette Girl. It was shot the first week of my Teenager's life. I recall arriving home from hospital to urgent calls from the director, as last minute changes to the script were required.

Alice E. Vincent

Editorial assistant for the Huffington Post UK blogs team

Fertility rights are hugely important. But what's happening in (nee) Middleton's middle shouldn't be up for public discussion. It's fantastic that another royal is on the way but it would be even better if the press could stop the speculation on how it's gestating for the next half year.

Nick Purves

Editor, The London Word

This year's American presidential election was supposed to have been about the economy, a referendum on how whether president Obama had done enough to revive America's economic fortunes after the crash of 2008. Then Missouri congressman Todd Akin chose to give his views on the issue of abortion.

Rachel Carrell

CEO of DrThom, the remote healthcare service

I'd say learning you're HIV positive is roughly the same level of 'life changing' as learning you're pregnant... We should make home tests available in the UK. We should encourage high-risk people to use them often.

Lana Citron

Wordsmith, Author and Accidental Mother

I was out having lunch with an aunt when the phone rang. "You are not going to believe this." It was the Glam Rocker sounding jubilant. "Believe what?" "The band have been offered a world tour supporting a huge international female artist. Guess," he said, "Guess who?" I ran through the usual suspects Madonna, Rihanna, Beyoncé?

Zion Lights

Journalist interested in social and urban issues including sustainability, ethics and environmentalism. Columnist at One Green Planet

The term 'birth rape' is used by women whose bodies are treated like machines when they are most vulnerable to other people's wills. Labouring women whose minds and wishes are not respected or consulted. The power is taken from mum's hands to gloved hands the second you enter the ward, and you cannot take it back.