The NICHD’s research goals related to stillbirth include:
- Understanding the causes of stillbirths
- Detailing the demographic and population factors related to stillbirth
- Improving prediction of stillbirth risk
- Improving stillbirth post-mortem examination and reporting
- Outlining evidence-based measures to prevent or reduce stillbirth
- Linking in utero developmental phenotypes to gene expression, epigenetic changes, maternal physiology, and environmental exposures
- Improving our understanding of the morphology, function, genetics, and metabolism of the placenta and uterine blood flow
- Improving methods for antenatal diagnosis of placental disease or fetal health conditions that increase risk of stillbirth