There is a lot to laugh about when you're a new mum (or dad of course) but it's a happy chance when someone you love as a comedian becomes a parent and turns their attentions to some of the absurdities of parenthood. We saw this firstly with Libbi Gorr's parenting book "Mummy Manners (advice for dealing with the parents of other people's children)" and now we have the opportunity to laugh live with Libbi as she takes a post partum show about Mummies to the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

How do you be a good dad? The examples we can draw from are so small. Men are encouraged to be brave, breadwinners, career guys but how do we encourage them to be great dads? We don't have dad coaching like we have business coaches or footy coaches, many dads are just relying on their own childhood experiences with dads that worked long hours and came home to hide behind the newspaper or lawn mower on weekends.. so where are the role models where do we encourage men to find the strength to be the dads their children really need?

How children learn language is one of the great wonders of civilization. How do the neurons and connections made in tiny brains start to re-wire themselves into pathways that create language? One thing researchers are working on is the learning of 'colours' and the pattern of the English language has given researchers some insight into how children translate this knowlege into their language skills. The results of this new research are somewhat surprising especially for parents who believed their pre-schoolers knew all their colours!

Want to feed your baby to give them the very best start to life? Of course you do... but how do you separate food fact from food fad? We all know the goalposts around nutrition are changing just as a society we are getting heavier but how do you separate the crazy food fads (Paleo I'm looking at you!) from the food facts.. (food pyramid you're changing around on me!) This is why we need a little expert help, which this week comes in the form of new mother and Nutrition Guru, Tara Leong, who loves to share her baby's food adventures online with her own very science based smackdowns of some of the fads that are making the rounds of the internet.

Did you know that pre-term or premature births is the biggest cause of death and disability of children up to five years of age in the developed world? Aside from being born tiny, pre-term babies suffer from a range of complications and developmental disorders that could have been prevented if only they could have stayed longer in utero. Research teams in Western Australia have been racing to find the reasons why babies are born too early and now they think they have six interventions that could end the tragedy of pre-term births.

Epidurals have been used as pain relief during labour since about the 1970s, they are considered safe and effective but a Chinese Professor of anaesthesiology in Beijing has found that mothers who used epidurals during labour had a lower incidence of post natal depression than mothers who did not use the spinal based pain relief. In this Babytalk podcast we speak to Professor Wang about his findings and Dr Guy Skinner a Melbourne based obstetrician about his experience of pain relief during labour and the incidence of post natal depression.

All parents know it doesn't take long for your baby's personality to shine through. As days turn into weeks you just know if your baby likes interacting with others or needs quiet time alone to recharge.. you realise they're good at thinking through problems or making new friends, they're keen to draw or prefer to build, they like the outdoors or the dreaded screens! But just as we watch our children grow their strengths it can be concerning for many parents to watch some other traits creep into their children's behaviour. In this podcast we're going to talk about anxiety and how it can sometimes be a problem for children. Dr Luke Martin from Beyond Blue is going to explain what anxiety is and how you can help your child overcome it.

Is it possible to be a happier parent? Is happiness something you can work on? Will habits make me a better parent? American author Gretchen Rubin has made a career of studying what makes people happy and her findings are remarkable. Making your bed every morning, getting yourself to bed on time, treating yourself and the other adults in the family as gently as toddlers can lead to remarkable happiness for everyone. So rather than giving up happiness until the baby is sleeping through the night, in this podcast hear from Gretchen Rubin as she leads us through some simple tweaks that will leave us all 'happier than before'!

Having a baby is lesson for many couples in how biology can sometimes just take over your body. For women particularly the experience of having your body not entirely your own is something that can be both good and bad. Sex is the topic that few of us are talking about particularly after the birth of a baby, but maybe we should. How soon? Will it hurt? What's everyone else really doing? Acting Professor Stephanie Brown talks about a very sensitive subject.

How do you become a good grandparent? The answer is probably quite similar to the other almost endless question, 'how do I become a good parent'. The big difference being that most grandparents have an advantage... they've done it all before. Their big disadvantage is that the people they practiced on are now poised to be their biggest critics!