Stillbirth: For Researchers and Health Care Providers

• NICHD Resources
  • Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch (PPB)
    The PPB is the main source of NICHD extramural support for stillbirth research.
    • Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research
      The Global Network, a partnership between the NICHD and outside organizations, is committed to improving maternal and infant health outcomes and building health research capacity in resource-poor settings. Network scientists test cost-effective, sustainable interventions for adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as stillbirth.
    • Prenatal Alcohol and SIDS and Stillbirth (PASS) Network
      The PASS Network, supported by the PPB and two other NIH Institutes, conducts community-linked studies to investigate the role of prenatal alcohol exposure in the risk for SIDS and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and how they may be interrelated.
    • Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network (SCRN)
      The SCRN, supported by the PPB, was established in 2003 to understand the causes of stillbirth, improve stillbirth reporting, and develop preventive interventions for the condition. In addition, the SCRN is leading to the standardization of reporting procedures and post-mortem examination protocols, which allow more accurate data on the topic.
    • Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-be (nuMoM2b)
      nuMoM2b aims to study the underlying causes of adverse pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, preeclampsia, fetal growth abnormalities, and stillbirth) among a cohort of 10,000 women in their first pregnancy. This prospective observational study is expected to lead to a better understanding of how genetics, biomarkers, environmental exposures, and psychosocial factors interact to result in these adverse outcomes. The recruitment and ascertainment of outcomes of the final cohort was completed in September 2014. A substudy of nuMoM2b—co-funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute—is studying the effect of sleep disordered breathing during pregnancy and various sleep parameters, including sleep position, on these adverse pregnancy outcomes.
    • Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network
      The PPB-supported MFMU is conducting a trial of women who are diagnosed with primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection early in pregnancy. Primary CMV infection is associated with stillbirth, placental damage, and poor fetal growth. This trial is studying whether treatment with hyperimmune CMV globulin versus placebo decreases CMV infection and consequences in the offspring.
  • Fertility and Infertility (FI) Branch
    The FI Branch supports basic, clinical, and translational research to alleviate human infertility, control fertility, and understand the processes of human reproduction.
  • Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease Branch (MPIDB)
    The MPIDB supports and conducts research in the United States and around the world on the epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical manifestations, pathogenesis, transmission, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases, especially HIV, in infants, children, youth, and women.
  • Division of Intramural Population Health Research (DIPHR)
    DIPHR researchers design and conduct etiological and interventional studies on population health from preconception through adulthood, taking a life course approach.
• Helping Babies Breathe 
  NICHD and outside partners lead this initiative to train skilled birth attendants around the world on basic newborn care techniques for the first minute after birth. An evaluation by the Global Network showed that this program's neonatal resuscitation training prevents deaths from neonatal asphyxia that would have otherwise been classified as stillbirths.
• The Lancet series on stillbirths 
  The series highlights the rates and causes of stillbirth globally, explores cost-effective interventions to prevent stillbirths (as well as maternal and neonatal deaths), and sets key actions to halve stillbirth rates by 2020. Also included are comments from professional organizations and parent groups.
• American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Guidelines for Management of Stillbirth (131 - KB)
  This press release describes the ACOG's guidelines for providers' management of stillbirth. A link at the bottom leads to the guidelines, which are accessible to ACOG members only.
• Stillbirth Classification—Developing an International Consensus for Research: Executive Summary of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop
  This article, published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, results from an NICHD-sponsored workshop to review the pathophysiology of conditions underlying stillbirth to define causes of death.
• Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University: Infant Mortality and Pregnancy Loss Knowledge Path 
  These recent, high-quality resources on infant mortality and pregnancy loss analyze data, report on research aimed at identifying causes and promising intervention strategies, and describe risk-reduction efforts as well as bereavement-support programs.
• International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) 
  This organization promotes and supports research on stillbirth and works to develop methods to prevent stillbirth. The Research  page describes the research promoted and supported by the ISA.
• World Health Organization (WHO): Stillbirth 
  This page presents data on national, regional, and worldwide estimates of stillbirth rates.
• Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance (PLIDA) 
  PLIDA supports health care practitioners and parent-advocates in their efforts to improve care for families who experience a miscarriage, stillbirth, or death of an infant.

Please note: Links to organizations and information included on this page do not indicate endorsement from the NICHD, NIH, or HHS.