When I met my friend Aishwarya's daughter, Aanya, on a Sunday afternoon, she was building an entire world in her backyard using only sticks, leaves, and her imagination. In her eyes, a stick became a magic wand, leaves turned into currency for her "shop," and an old cardboard box was her fortress. Aishwarya admitted that this was Aanya’s “free play” time—a period without gadgets, instructions, or adult guidance, which made me curious.

To put this to rest, we had a word with Dr Kushal Agrawal, Neonatologist and Head of the Department of Neonatology and Paediatrics at KVR Hospital Kashipur, "Unstructured play is much more than just frivolous fun. It is an integral part of child development. Today, children do not have much scope for free play. With the academic system, straddled by extracurricular activities and digital entertainment, the scope for unstructured play is getting smaller and smaller.". On the contrary, research reveals that unstructured plays hold a lot of benefits for children that structured activities may not have in store.

What are the Physical Benefits of Unstructured Play?

According to Dr Agrawal, "free time plays" are a great way for kids to get involved in physical activities meant for their growth. "When children are left to play freely, their movements become more varied and spontaneous," he says. Science behind this practice does support this because free play increases the levels of physical activity, which is moderately vigorous in children; this is essential in preventing childhood obesity and promoting health in general.

Other than these, the outdoor environments provide opportunities and challenges for natural development outside. While children run, jump, climb, and look around the outdoors, they can become able to develop strength, coordination, and endurance for a healthy and active lifestyle by exercising. Otherwise, structured activities often restrict children to specific movements or instructions.

How Play helps in Social and Emotional Growth of Kids?

Except for physical fitness, disorganized play lays the foundation for basic social and emotional capabilities. During unorganized play, children invent their games, negotiate roles, settle disputes, and collaborate to attain some common objectives. According to Dr. Agrawal, "such interactions build empathy, cooperation, and communication skills as children learn to express themselves, listen to others and adapt to group dynamics.".

Research indicates that children learn emotional resilience through unstructured play, navigating minor setbacks in a low-stakes environment. If the game goes sour, kids learn to solve the problem on the spot; this builds up their self-confidence as well as independence. This is a kind of play that gives children the freedom to learn by themselves and try new things without having the fear of being prohibited by others or the fear of failure.

How Parents can Encourage Creativity and Problem-Solving in Children

Freedom in play helps unlock a child's creativity and the problem-solving aspects. Most structured activities have predetermined tasks or instructions that do not develop creative thought. According to Dr Agrawal, "When children are allowed to be free, they can explore and create their own scenarios, which are meant for developing unique solutions based on critical thinking.".

Unstructured play provides children with a number of materials for play—blocks, sand, or leaves, for example—without script, so that they invent games, build imaginary worlds, and, in a very real sense, answer their natural curiosity. It has been proven that this type of play helps children to make decisions, adaptability, and innovations, qualities useful throughout life.

Is Play Holistic Approach to Child Development?

Dr Agrawal believes that unstructured play is a very important factor of all-rounded child development. "Nowadays, children's lives are very scheduled, so it's very important for the parents to remember how necessary play is", he further adds. Being freely playful would be a great support to their healthy physical development as well as social, emotional, and cognitive development.

As parents, we can encourage free play by creating an environment that encourages exploration and curiosity. What can be very impactful is giving the child a safe outdoor space and setting aside gadgets to allow for uninterrupted time to play. As these spaces tend to be counterintuitive to everything that can be seen as a hallmark of productivity and measurable progress, unstructured play allows the children to build resilience, independence, and joy.

Giving Children the Freedom to Play

More than just being childhood, unstructured play confers a wide range of benefits since children learn to manage social dynamics, solve problems independently, and bring their creativity into life which puts them better prepared for the challenges of adulthood. In this natural form of play, people lay down a foundation for lifelong skills to achieve balanced wellbeing and success.

The next time you catch your child playing carefree—maybe using a stick as a wand or a rock as a pet—take the time to be thankful for the developmental steps.

At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly significant role in healthcare, fertility clinics are turning to AI to help analyze sperm. Surprised? It's already happening. Advanced AI-powered systems are helping assess sperm with greater accuracy and consistency, offering men seeking fatherhood a more reliable path through fertility evaluation and treatment, according to experts, today on Father's Day.

Infertility affects millions of people worldwide, with an estimated one in six individuals of reproductive age experiencing difficulty conceiving at some point in their lives. Male infertility contributes to up to half of all infertility cases, and around 1 per cent of men are diagnosed with azoospermia — a condition in which no sperm are detected in a semen sample.

However, some men may have extremely low sperm counts, with only a handful of sperm cells present and difficult to detect through conventional methods. Emerging AI-powered technologies are now helping specialists identify these rare sperm cells more accurately, offering new hope to men facing severe infertility and improving their chances of biological parenthood.

HealthandMe spoke to experts, who believe that AI is increasingly being used in fertility care to improve the precision, consistency and efficiency of sperm analysis.

AI Changing Traditional Sperm Analysis

Read More: 3 Infants Hospitalized In US Botulism Outbreak Tied To Powdered Formula

Traditionally, semen evaluation has relied on manual microscopy, where embryologists assess sperm count, motility, morphology and movement patterns under a microscope. Experts said this process can be influenced by observer skill and interpretation, leading to variations in results.

Dr. Neha Gupta, Additional Director, Obstetrics & Gynecology at Fortis Noida, told HealthandMe that "AI systems use image recognition and machine learning to assess sperm count, motility, morphology and movement patterns in real time, often providing more reliable results".

"Research shows that AI-assisted sperm analysis can lower human error, reduce differences between observers, and process large amounts of data much faster than traditional methods," she said.

According to Dr. Gupta, these advances help doctors make better decisions and improve the overall efficiency of fertility evaluations.

AI as a Support Tool, Not a Replacement

Also read: AI Cannot Replace Doctors, It Can Only Complement, Says Dr Santosh Sivaranjani

Dr. Gupta added that for patients, AI can mean faster reports, more dependable assessments and a smoother diagnostic process. AI also aids in embryo selection, treatment planning and predicting IVF outcomes, helping customize fertility care.

Dr. PGL Lalit Kumar, Head of Embryology and Scientific Director at Nova IVF Fertility, told HealthandMe that sperm analysis has long depended on the expertise of embryologists who evaluate sperm characteristics manually.

"AI is gradually shifting sperm assessment from a largely observational process to a more data-enriched one, which can help specialists identify subtle patterns and variations that may have previously been difficult to quantify," he said.

One of the major advantages of AI, according to Dr. Kumar, is its ability to analyze large numbers of sperm cells within a short period and detect subtle patterns that may not always be obvious during manual assessment.

However, he stressed that AI is not replacing specialists. Instead, it serves as an additional tool that supports embryologists' observations and helps them make more informed decisions.

He added that AI can bring greater consistency to assessments by reducing subjectivity and ensuring sperm evaluation is based on objective, measurable parameters.

Making Fertility Treatment More Consistent

Read More: Why Sleeping Pill Addiction Is Common Among Football Players

"For couples going through fertility treatment, a lot of these changes happen behind the scenes, but they can make the whole process feel smoother," Dr. Kumar said, noting that faster analysis, more consistent reporting and smarter sperm selection can help doctors adapt treatment plans more effectively.

He said that technology has helped bring greater consistency to laboratory processes, particularly in sperm and embryo evaluation.

The expert emphasized that fertility treatment is not driven by technology alone and that the experience of embryologists and clinicians remains central to every decision, with AI acting as a support system rather than a replacement for human expertise.

AI Adoption Growing in India

Dr. Kshitiz Murdia, CEO and Whole-Time Director of Indira IVF Hospital, told HealthandMe that AI is making sperm assessment more objective, consistent and data-driven.

From traditional semen analysis, where interpretation could vary between observers on manual microscopic examination, he said that "AI-powered systems can rapidly analyze thousands of sperm cells and assess parameters such as count, motility and morphology with a high degree of precision, helping reduce human variability".

According to Dr. Murdia, adoption of AI-enabled technologies in reproductive medicine is gradually increasing in India, particularly in advanced fertility laboratories.

However, Dr. Murdia stressed that AI should be viewed as an aid rather than a substitute for clinical expertise. Human judgement, patient history and comprehensive fertility evaluation remain central to treatment planning.

As oncologists, we often meet patients at some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Yet there are times where a patient's journey reminds of the extraordinary resilience that people can show while facing the challenges that cancer presents

I recently treated a 38-year-old woman whose story has stayed with me.

Having just welcomed her baby into the world, her demanding yet joyful routine revolved around feeding schedules and sleepless nights. It was during this period that she noticed a hard lump in her breast.

Breast Lumps Can Cause Aggressive Breast Cancer

A sonomammography revealed a suspicious BIRADS 4A lesion. A biopsy confirmed Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), which is one of the more aggressive forms of breast cancer. It was classified as a Stage III disease after evaluation through PET-CT which showed involvement of the axillary lymph nodes. The tumor also had a high Ki-67 index, indicating that it was growing rapidly.

Facing Cancer While Caring for A Newborn

The untimely diagnosis found the mother facing difficult questions about cancer treatment, her future and her ability to care for her child. One of the immediate challenges was that she had to stop breastfeeding.

Under the guidance of her pediatrician, her baby was transitioned to bottle feeds. This can be an emotionally challenging process for mothers as the feeling of guilt tends to seep in when breastfeeding plans are disrupted by illness.

A Modern Treatment Approach

After detailed and prolonged discussions with the patient and her family, we initiated treatment with neoadjuvant immunotherapy using pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy. This approach has emerged as one of the more prominent advances in the treatment of high-risk Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, having significantly improved outcomes for many patients.

Motherhood is a physically and emotionally taxing experience but the patient showed incredible strength during her cancer therapy, driven by her child and the unwavering support of her family.

Following completion of neoadjuvant therapy, repeat PET-CT imaging showed a near-complete response. She subsequently underwent surgery, and the final pathology report revealed a pathological complete response, meaning no residual invasive cancer had been detected.

This was the desired outcome for the treating team as well as the patient. She later completed the remaining course of immunotherapy, bringing her total treatment duration to one year. Today, both mother and child are doing well.

Breast Cancer Can Occur During Pregnancy

This tremendous journey highlights an important message. The fact that breast cancer can occur during pregnancy and the postpartum period deserves wider attention. Any breast lump that persists or feels unusual should be evaluated by a healthcare professional, as early diagnosis remains one of the most important factors in achieving positive outcomes.

The process is reflective of the advances in cancer treatment that are changing the outlook for patients with aggressive cancers. These advances are done through the integration of immunotherapy into treatment protocols which is helping more patients achieve improved long-term outcomes. The mother’s story is a reminder that cancer and motherhood are not mutually exclusive journeys.

Her ability to navigate this path is due to her timely diagnosis, access to appropriate treatment, family support and personal resilience. What began as a frightening diagnosis soon after childbirth ultimately became a story of hope, courage and survival. This is a powerful reminder to every new mother who might discover an unusual breast lump, that listening to your body and seeking medical advice early can make all the difference.

Pregnancy should not be regarded as a physical journey since it is a very emotional and deeply transformative phase in any woman's life. As the body changes itself to support new life, expecting mothers usually experience pain in the back, fatigue, and breathing-related discomfort. When practised under proper medical guidance, prenatal yoga can be very safe and highly supportive throughout pregnancy.

Supports Better Flexibility and Body Balance

As pregnancy progresses, the center of gravity of the body is shifted by the growing uterus. This can even impact posture and overall movement of the body. Prenatal Yoga normally includes gentle stretches and a controlled level of movement, which helps to improve the flexibility and stability without even placing unnecessary strain on the mother's and baby's bodies.

Yoga helps in:

• Reducing pregnancy-related back pain: Pain in the lower back is one of the most common discomforts that is mainly experienced during pregnancy. Gentle Yoga also assists in strengthening the back and provides better support to the spine.

• Improving breathing and oxygen flow: Mindful breathing also assists expectant mothers in managing breathlessness and calming the nervous system. Breathing-related awareness can assist women in remaining composed during the birth of a child.

• Reducing stress and anxiety: Pregnancy also causes emotional problems due to changes in hormones and physical discomfort during the birth of a child. Prenatal yoga integrates movement, exercises related to breathing, and relaxation techniques, which help reduce stress and mental fatigue. A good, calm mother is more likely to experience emotional well-being throughout the journey of pregnancy.

• Promoting better sleep: Most of the pregnant women also struggle with sleep-related patterns, due to body aches, frequent urination, which may help women to feel more confident and well prepared for the birth of a child.

• Preparing the body for labor: Prenatal yoga also plays a good role in building strength and controlled breathing, which can support the body during labor. Gentle hip opening movements and all relaxation techniques also help women to feel more confident and well prepared for the birth of a child.

• Encourages mother-baby connection: Prenatal yoga also provides expecting mothers with dedicated time to connect well with their baby. All these practices can also enhance the existing bond between mother and child, making the journey of pregnancy feel more positive.