News & Updates

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Mrs. Tipper Gore today announced the start of a new component of the successful "Back to Sleep" campaign that will focus on reducing the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) among African Americans.

Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Stanford University have discovered the gene for Rett syndrome, a heartbreaking disorder which gradually robs healthy infant girls of their language, mental functioning, and ability to interact with others.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $3.2 million to fund centers that will support early research careers in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

Scientists at a research network funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) are seeking infertile couples for a study to investigate whether taking a sample of endometrial tissue is useful for diagnosing and treating infertility.

Children of depressed mothers performed more poorly on measures of school readiness, verbal comprehension, and expressive language skills at 36 months of age than children of mothers who never reported depression.

A basic science advance has provided a major clue to the possible cause and treatment of IgA nephropathy, a kidney disorder that affects hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.

Children born to mothers with untreated hypothyroidism during pregnancy score lower on IQ tests than children of healthy mothers, according to a study conducted by Dr. James Haddow and partially funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and reported in the August 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A new mathematical analysis of a previous study shows that calcium supplements do not prevent preeclampsia in women at low risk for the condition. Preeclampsia is a dangerous, sometimes fatal, disorder of pregnancy that often strikes without warning.

Two studies supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide compelling evidence that the amount of HIV in a pregnant woman's blood, known as the maternal HIV viral load, is the prime risk factor for transmitting the virus to her baby.

Women with preeclampsia, a potentially fatal complication of pregnancy, appear to have an imbalance of two key chemical compounds that control blood pressure, according to a study by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) published in the July 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

America's children are, on average, doing better in several respects than they have in recent years, according to the third annual Federal report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being.

Children attending child care centers that meet professional standards for quality score higher on school readiness and language tests and have fewer behavioral problems than their peers in centers not meeting such standards, according to a study appearing in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have discovered a gene that controls the development of the hippocampus, a brain structure crucial for learning and memory.

Homicide, accidental suffocation, motor vehicle accidents, fire, drowning, and choking were the major causes of injury-related death for children less than a year of age, according to a study by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

An investigational drug that helps insulin to function more efficiently appears to combat infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common cause of female infertility, according to a research team funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

At a press event held today at the Vanderbilt YMCA in New York City, Tipper Gore, national spokesperson for the Back to Sleep Campaign, announced that Pampers has joined the fight against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of death among babies ages one to 12 months old.

At a press event held today at the Vanderbilt YMCA in New York City, Tipper Gore, national spokesperson for the Back to Sleep Campaign, announced that Pampers has joined the fight against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of death among babies ages one to 12 months old.

In a groundbreaking new study, a Yale research team funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has used sophisticated brain imaging technology to show that estrogen alters brain activation patterns in postmenopausal women as they perform memory tasks.

The largest, most comprehensive analysis of its kind has found that pregnant women infected with HIV can reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their infants by about 50 percent if they deliver by elective cesarean section--before they have gone into labor and before their membranes have ruptured, according to a study led by a researcher at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Researchers affiliated with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study of early child care will report that, in general, day care in the United States is "fair," but not outstanding.