As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, pregnancy and maternity services underwent a rapid transformation in an attempt to deal with transmission of the virus and the growing pressure on healthcare services. In a climate of fear, and with many unknowns about the virus and the risks to pregnant women and their babies, restrictions and hastily implemented policies often overrode years of work to improve maternity care, with devastating consequences for new families. Covid Babies: how pandemic health measures undermined pregnancy, birth and early parenting considers how policies put in place to protect us from the immediate threat of the virus ultimately had the unintended consequence of harming many who needed maternity and postnatal care. It highlights how hard-won gains, even when supported by overwhelming evidence, can be lost at the drop of a hat in a crisis. By learning the lessons of the pandemic – through close examination of the evidence base that is now emerging – Amy Brown shows