Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch (PPB)

Radiologist showing ultrasound image to a pregnant woman

Overview/Mission

PPB’s goals are to improve the health of women before, during, and after pregnancy; increase infant survival; and ensure the long-term health of mothers and children. Specifically, the branch supports research to understand fetal development and improve ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases during pregnancy and in newborns.

As the focal point for NICHD extramural research and training in maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, and related fields, branch staff also engage with and support investigators to identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for scientific advancement.

Improving Health Before, During, and After Pregnancy: Includes research on maternal health from pre-pregnancy, through pregnancy, and postpartum, including maternal morbidity and mortality
Reducing Preterm Labor and Birth and Other Birth Complications: Studies factors affecting the initiation and completion of labor, including the physiology, endocrinology, and medical management of birth
Increasing Infant Survival, Free from Disease and Disability: Addresses causes, prevention, treatment, and medical management of conditions associated with or resulting from birth and the newborn period
Ensuring the Long-Term Health of Mothers and Children: Seeks to understand aspects of birth, newborn, and infant care that may influence long-term health
Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research: Supports and conducts clinical trials on cost-effective and sustainable interventions to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and build health research capacity in resource-limited countries
Human Placenta Project: Supports improvement to existing and development of new technologies for real-time assessment of placental development across pregnancy
Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative: Supports activities to reduce preventable causes of maternal death and improve maternal health; PPB leads and coordinates this NIH-wide effort
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network: Supports clinical research to reduce maternal, fetal, and infant morbidity related to preterm birth, fetal growth anomalies, and pregnancy complications, and to provide the rationale for evidence-based, cost-effective obstetric practice
Neonatal Research Network (NRN): Generates rigorous evidence on the health of infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units to improve the treatment and health outcomes of critically ill newborn babies
Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be (nuMoM2b): Evaluated the underlying, interrelated mechanisms of several common adverse pregnancy outcomes in first-time moms
PregSource^®: Crowdsourcing to Understand Pregnancy: Used online surveys to gather information about the pregnancy experience directly from pregnant women
Advancing Clinical Trials in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (ACT NOW): Informs the clinical care of infants exposed to opioids in the womb; part of the NIH-wide Helping to End Addiction Long-term^® Initiative

Research Challenges and Competitions: These mechanisms encourage research, development, and innovation among communities that do not traditionally apply for funding support. PPB leads and has led several challenges related to improving maternal health.
PPB-funded studies available in NICHD’s Data and Specimen Hub (DASH). Researchers, check out data from Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation, Community Child Health Research Network, Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research, MFMU Network, National Infant Sleep Position Study, and Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network, to name a few.
Cochrane Neonatal Review Group : NICHD supported the group from 1998 through 2017 to provide systematic reviews on neonatology topics.
Infant Feeding Practices Study II (IFPS II): This longitudinal study focused on infant feeding practices throughout the first year after birth and the diets of pregnant women in their third trimesters and at 4 months postpartum. The branch worked closely with the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct the study from 2005 to 2007. De-identified data from this study are available at the CDC website.

Nahida Chakhtoura, Chief
Main Research Areas: Epidemiology and natural history of HIV in pregnant and non-pregnant women; Zika; women's health; cohort studies and clinical trials; NIH-wide IMPROVE initiative
Stephanie Archer, Clinical Trials Specialist
Main Research Areas: Coordinator for NRN and MFMU Network
Guillermina Girardi, Health Scientist Administrator
Main Research Areas: Reproductive immunology; autoimmunity; recurrent miscarriages; preeclampsia; gestational diabetes; in utero/developmental origins of disease; imaging (MRI and 1HMRS [spectroscopy]) in placental insufficiency and atypical neurodevelopment; translational studies (particularly therapeutic strategies to prevent placental insufficiency)
Diane Gumina, Program Officer
Main Research Areas: Cellular mechanisms of placental insufficiency; development of treatment modalities and improved diagnostic technologies for pregnancy-associated complications; women’s health; translational research and clinical trials
John Ilekis, Program Director/Health Sciences Administrator
Main Research Areas: Cell-, molecular-, and genetic-based studies in pregnancy and perinatology; placental development and function; trophoblast differentiation; basic mechanisms underlying maternal and fetal disorders, such as spontaneous preterm birth, preeclampsia, and fetal growth restriction; parturition; fetal pathophysiology/programming and developmental origins of disease; perinatal microbiome and metagenomics; epigenetics, molecular biomarker discovery
Monica Longo, Medical Officer
Main Research Areas: High-risk pregnancy; hypertensive disorder of pregnancy; diabetes (type 1, type 2, and gestational); fetal developmental origins of health and disease; metabolic and cardiovascular programming; pregnancy as a window of future maternal health; cardiovascular risk after pregnancy
Megan Mitchell, Program Analyst
Main Research Areas: Funding opportunity and announcement development; human subjects research; clinical trials; program analysis/program management
Dorothy Tucker, Staff Assistant
David Weinberg, Project Lead
Main Research Areas: Human Placenta Project

Highlights

Road to Prevention of Stillbirth Requests for Applications (RFAs). NIH has published two RFAs to fund research centers and a data coordinating center that will form an integrated and collaborative Stillbirth Research Consortium. This consortium will support stillbirth-relevant basic, translational, clinical, and/or data sciences research across the United States, with a particular emphasis on ways to decrease the incidence of stillbirth in vulnerable populations.
- RFA-HD-25-010: Road to Prevention of Stillbirth – Clinical Research Centers (UG1 Clinical Trial Optional)
- RFA-HD-25-011: The Road to Prevention of Stillbirth – Data Coordinating Center (UM2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- The Road to Prevention of Stillbirth Frequently Asked Questions
News Release: Single-dose antibiotic prevents maternal sepsis and death. Results of an NIH-funded study of the antibiotic azithromycin suggest a potential approach to reduce maternal mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
News Release: NIH announces winners of data challenge to identify risk factors for first-time pregnancies. Awarded projects of the Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge seek to reduce pregnancy complications and prevent maternal deaths.
PPB leads and participates in NICHD’s activities related to COVID-19, especially as it relates to COVID-19 during pregnancy and postpartum.
HPP Research Showcase: Read about the tools and tests researchers are designing to revolutionize our understanding of the human placenta and to enable the development of safe, noninvasive, real-time assessment of human placenta development and function across pregnancy.
PPB-supported researchers developed and recently updated a tool using data from the Neonatal Research Network that shows outcome trends for infants born at extremely preterm gestations. To access the tool and learn about the data, visit the Extremely Preterm Birth Outcomes Tool webpage.

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Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch (PPB)

Overview/Mission

Branch Research Programs and Networks

Branch-Funded Projects

Researcher Tools and Resources

Program Scientists, Staff, and Research Areas

Highlights

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