News & Updates

Released in January, the NICHD Strategic Plan 2025 lays out updated priorities to guide the institute’s research over the next five years. While our five major research goals are unchanged, we made substantial updates to reflect shifts in public health priorities and the evolution of new technologies.

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.

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.

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.

High levels of some forever chemicals in pregnancy could lead to midlife obesity, a study suggests.

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.

NIH awarded two new grants to expand its Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence. These institutions design and implement research projects seeking to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity in the United States.

NICHD is co-hosting several workshops and virtual meetings on women’s health topics in summer 2024. Please consider registering to participate in discussions and to help shape future research and care.

The Division of Intramural Research provides fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems through basic, clinical, and population-based research.

Sepsis screening tools designed to account for the physiological changes that may occur during pregnancy perform best from 20 weeks of pregnancy through 3 days postpartum, research suggests. In early pregnancy and later in the postpartum period, tools based on general sepsis screening criteria may more accurately predict which patients are at high risk for maternal sepsis, a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths.

In 2023, NICHD continued its commitment to research to understand human development, improve reproductive health, promote women’s health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all. Highlights include steps toward reducing the global burden of maternal sepsis and establishing a standard treatment for opioid-exposed newborns.

As we ring in 2024, we’d like to take a brief look back on our accomplishments during 2023. These activities illustrate the institute’s continued commitment to research and training in its mission areas.

NICHD announced a new cycle of funding for research collaborations in its Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research. The network, which is re-competed every seven years, includes U.S.-based research centers and counterparts in low- and lower middle-income countries. The Global Network has been improving maternal and child health outcomes worldwide and building health research capacity in resource-poor settings since 2001.

NIH has awarded $24 million in first-year funding to establish Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence. The centers will develop and evaluate innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity.

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.

A new guide developed by NICHD and its partners promises to standardize the exchange of clinical data on maternal and infant health. The guide is an important step toward establishing a common framework to help clinicians and scientists better understand the root causes and high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality.

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.

The health of pregnant women and new mothers in the nation’s prisons should be prioritized to avoid future public health crises from COVID-19, according to an analysis by NICHD-funded investigators. Recommended policy changes include early release, when possible, because pregnant women are at high risk from COVID-19, and prisons are not well-equipped to provide the necessary medical care. Moreover, prisons should promote COVID-19 vaccination and develop targeted messages for this population to counteract vaccine misinformation.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has announced new funding for participating centers in its Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network.

Black people are about three times as likely as White people to die from a pregnancy-related cause, regardless of income or education level. The NIH-wide IMPROVE initiative works to reduce preventable pregnancy-related deaths and complications and promote health equity.