News & Updates

Read about select research advances supported by NICHD in 2024, including work on women’s health, child and adolescent health, medical rehabilitation, health disparities, and more.

NIH researchers found previously undetected cancers in nearly half of pregnant women who had abnormal results for prenatal cell-free DNA testing used to screen for chromosomal disorders in the fetus.

Understanding and addressing a wide range of women’s gynecological and reproductive health issues are priorities for NICHD. Through research, the institute seeks to support and optimize the health of women throughout their lives.

NIH researchers have upgraded a sensor that monitors placental oxygen levels, pairing it with sensors that monitor a pregnant woman’s breathing, heart rate, and uterine contractions, along with fetal movements.

Eight winning teams developed home-based and point-of-care diagnostics, wearables and other accessible technologies to improve postpartum health outcomes in regions that have limited access to maternity care.

NIH announced the final winners of a 2-year prize competition that encouraged community-based organizations to develop the infrastructure and capabilities to conduct maternal health research.

By late 2022, widespread COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women likely halted a spike in the preterm birth rate that began at the start of the pandemic, suggests a new study. The findings underscore the need for pregnant women to keep current on COVID-19 vaccination.

Two-year-old children showed no benefits from their mothers receiving antibodies that target cytomegalovirus (CMV) during pregnancy compared to those whose mothers received a placebo. Findings from this follow-up study were similar to the original, which also found no differences. Full effects of CMV infection during pregnancy may not appear until a child is two years old.

A new imaging technique that measures the ability of the placenta to supply blood to the fetus may predict the chances of impaired fetal growth as early as the 14th week of pregnancy. The new method seems to allow earlier diagnosis than the standard ultrasound technique, which can detect reductions in placental blood flow at 20 to 24 weeks. Earlier detection of fetal growth restriction and risk of small for gestational age fetuses may lead to strategies for treating these conditions.

A device known as a pessary, thought promising for reducing preterm birth risk due to a short cervix, appears no more effective than usual medical care, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. A pessary is a rounded silicone device that fits around a cervix that has shortened, to keep it from opening and leading to miscarriage or preterm birth. The device is typically removed before the 37th week of pregnancy.

Depression from six weeks gestation through the end of pregnancy may increase the risk of heart and blood vessel disease up to two years after birth, suggests an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health.

NIH has announced the next round of winners of its Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge—a $3 million prize competition to encourage community-based and advocacy organizations in the United States to develop the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to conduct maternal health research.

Tranexamic acid appears no more effective than placebo in reducing the need for blood transfusion or preventing maternal death in patients with increased risk for excessive bleeding because of cesarean delivery, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Tranexamic acid slows the natural breakdown of blood clots and was considered promising for reducing the risk of excessive bleeding after giving birth—known as postpartum hemorrhage—after cesarean delivery.

The National Institutes of Health announced the next round of winners of its RADx® Tech for Maternal Health Challenge—an $8 million prize competition to accelerate development of technologies to improve maternal health outcomes.

NIH-funded technique enables automatic detection of placental compartments, oxygen status and structural abnormalities.

The National Institutes of Health is offering up to $8 million in cash prizes to accelerate development of technologies to improve maternal health outcomes for those who live in areas lacking access to maternity care.

Giving the hormone adiponectin to pregnant mice with obesity prevented later life obesity and related health conditions in their offspring, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that adiponectin, a hormone produced by fat cells, could play a role in reducing the lifelong obesity risk of children born to mothers with obesity during pregnancy.

The increase in pregnancy complications linked to air pollution exposure could result from the pollutants’ direct effects on the placenta, suggests a study in mice funded by the National Institutes of Health. Placentas of mice exposed to a mixture of common urban air pollutants before and during pregnancy were inflamed and had a loss of blood vessel cells. The study authors say the findings could provide insight into how air pollution might affect pregnancies and lead to strategies for preventing pregnancy complications.

The placenta supports pregnancy and influences the lifelong health of both mother and child. Yet it is the least understood, and least studied, of all human organs. In a guest post for the NIH Director’s Blog, Dr. Bianchi discusses work from NICHD’s Human Placenta Project to understand how the placenta functions in real time during pregnancy.

An individual’s risk for death by suicide may begin before they are born, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The authors compared pregnancy and birth records of nearly 50,000 individuals born between 1959 and 1966 to death records through 2016. They found that suicide rates were higher for males, white people, and for those who were among the younger siblings in a family. Other risk factors included having a parent with less than a high school education, having a parent who worked a manual labor job, and having a mother with a high rate of pregnancy complications or who smoked during pregnancy.