Breastfeeding is the most nutritionally demanding stage of the reproductive cycle, and for several nutrients the requirement is higher than during pregnancy. Under the NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values, a lactating woman aged 19 to 50 needs 80% more iodine, 89% more vitamin C, 50% more zinc, 57% more vitamin A and 46% more protein than a woman who is neither pregnant nor breastfeeding.

Postpartum hair loss is almost always telogen effluvium, a temporary shedding phase caused by hormonal change rather than by damage to your hair. During pregnancy, higher oestrogen keeps more hairs in the growing phase for longer. After birth, oestrogen falls and those hairs move into the resting phase together, then shed at the same time.

Matrescence is the developmental transition into motherhood. The term was coined by the American anthropologist Dana Raphael and describes, in the words of a 2023 review in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, "the process of becoming a mother, a developmental passage where a woman transitions through pre-conception, pregnancy and birth, surrogacy or adoption to the postnatal period and beyond."

The reason it matters is that it names something most Australian mothers experience and almost none are prepared for: the feeling of having been structurally rearranged.

Beef liver and spleen capsules have become a common way for Australians to add iron-rich organ meat to their diet without cooking it. The category has grown quickly, and the products in it vary far more than the packaging suggests.

Two tubs sitting side by side can differ by a factor of two in how much iron each capsule delivers, and neither label will tell you that directly. You have to work it out.

This guide sets out what to compare and how to do the arithmetic. It takes about five minutes and it is the difference between choosing on marketing and choosing on numbers.