Advocates say the change is a step in the right direction, but they want mothers of stillborn children to be able to claim the entirety of their maternity leave.

Here’s the video of Mei Xiang giving birth to a panda cub late last night.

A newborn panda cub caught zoo officials by surprise last night, but they say it’s doing well with its mother.

Washington woke up to a happy surprise today: Mei Xiang, the National Zoo’s female giant panda, gave birth to a cub on Sunday night.

You know what you don’t see everyday at the National Zoo? A live birth! But that’s what some visitors got to watch yesterday when a gazelle went into labor.

Bai Yun, the San Diego Zoo’s female panda, just thinks she’s soooooo great, doesn’t she. She’s been popping out babies left and right over the last few years, already having had four to our own Mei Xiang’s one, and then just to pour salt in the wound, she had to go and have a fifth one yesterday. Well la-di-dah, San Diego. Aren’t you friggin’ special. But kindly note that your zookeepers don’t seem to have…

Sorry, Flickr users, today’s Photo of the Day comes from a local whose achievement in the field of biological, if not photographic, excellence dusts all y’all suckers. This is an ultrasound image belonging to friend of mine. It is not a joke; it is not a fake, and yes, of course I obtained her permission to post it here with the quite understandable proviso that I remove her name from it. Those of you…

The first baby born in the D.C. metro area in 2008 was Stella Jones. WJLA reported that little Stella was born at George Washington Hospital at 12:02 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Melanie Smith Jones and Justin Philip Jones are the proud parents of the baby girl, who weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds and 10 ounces. The Joneses live in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. So congratulations to the Joneses! Of course, it’s a…