But these hopes are regularly dashed when Masako reappears in public obviously still not pregnant.

CNN: AN HEIR OF CHANGE IN JAPAN

Many of the women caught in this pharmacological blast did not even realise they were pregnant when they took the medicine.

ECONOMIST: Thalidomide

But this effect was only seen among the children of women who drank between one and six drinks a week during pregnancy and not among women who abstained when they were pregnant.

BBC: Moderate drinking in pregnancy 'harms IQ'

When women are pregnant, people ask them, but not the fathers of their children, whether they plan to return to work.

CNN: It's working 'parents,' not just mothers

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that, " Jobs is quoted as saying in the promotional material for the book, being penned by Walter Isaacson.

CNN: Steve Jobs: From college dropout to tech visionary

Carol Sadrozinske was told she might not be able to raise her son when she was diagnosed while pregnant in 1987, at the age of 23 (many people with MS are diagnosed quite early in life, with the peak of the disease coming at 29 or 30, according to Vollmer).

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Under Irish law, abortion can only be carried out when there is a risk to the life - not the health - of a pregnant woman.

BBC: Savita Halappanavar