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.
News
NICHD issues News Releases and Media Advisories to the news media. Spotlight and Research Feature articles explain NICHD research findings and public health issues to the general public. An Item of Interest is a short announcement of relevant information, such as a notable staff change.
Release: NIH launches challenge to advance community-based maternal health research
The National Institutes of Health has launched a $3 million challenge competition to encourage community-based and advocacy organizations in the United States to develop the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to conduct maternal health research.
Item of Interest: NIH to establish Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence
NIH recently released three funding opportunity announcements inviting applications for the Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence initiative, which will develop and evaluate innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity.
Spotlight: Decoded: Data-Driven Solutions to Optimize Health and Outcomes for First-time Mothers
To help spur innovation against a growing maternal health crisis, NICHD launched the Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge last year. Learn about the winning proposals.
Science Update: Maternal pregnancy complications may increase risk of infant health effects, NIH-funded study suggests
Life-threatening pregnancy complications known as severe maternal morbidity (SMM) appear to be associated with an increased length of hospital stay for infants and an increase in the cost of caring for them, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings support the hypothesis that infants of mothers with SMM may also be at risk for severe complications. The authors concluded that helping patients to reduce their risk factors—in early pregnancy or before conception—may reduce the chances for SMM and improve the health of infants.
Science Update: Drug use, suicide, and homicide account for more than a fifth of pregnancy-associated deaths, study suggests
In the United States, more than 20 percent of deaths during pregnancy and the first year after childbirth are due to drug use, suicide, or homicide, an NICHD-funded study suggests. The number of pregnancy associated deaths from these causes increased between 2010 and 2019, with drug-related deaths nearly tripling.
Spotlight: Selected NICHD Research Advances of 2021
Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2021.
Release: NIH study suggests women with disabilities have higher risk of birth complications and death
Pregnant women with disabilities have a much higher risk for severe pregnancy- and birth-related complications and death than other pregnant women, according to findings by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Appearing in JAMA Network Open, the analysis of more than 223,000 deliveries in 19 U.S. hospitals found that roughly 2,199 women had a disability.
Item of Interest: PregSource® Mobile App Allows Access from Anywhere
It just got easier to participate in the PregSource®: Crowdsourcing to Understand Pregnancy research project. The free app allows participants to track their weight, sleep, mood, and other features of their pregnancy in just a few taps.
Release: NIH announces winners of data challenge to identify risk factors for first-time pregnancies
Awarded projects seek to reduce pregnancy complications and prevent maternal deaths.
Item of Interest: Una Grewal Appointed Director of the Division of Population Health Research
Dr. Grewal has been acting director of the division since February 2020.
Media Advisory: NIH researchers link depression during pregnancy to placental gene modifications
Episodes of maternal stress or depression during pregnancy are associated with chemical modifications to placental genes, according to a study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The modifications involve DNA methylation—binding of compounds known as methyl groups to DNA—which can alter a gene’s activity. Some of the methylation changes associated with maternal depression occurred near genes involved in brain development, suggesting that maternal depression in pregnancy could have long-term implications for the mental development of the child.
Spotlight: Developing Mobile Health Solutions for Women in Guatemala
NIH-supported program reduces maternal deaths, complications in rural Guatemalan communities.
Release: NIH-funded study highlights stark racial disparities in maternal deaths
Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality in the United States may be larger than previously reported, suggests an NICHD-funded study.
Release: NIH data challenge seeks innovative methods for identifying complication risks in first-time pregnancies
The National Institutes of Health will award up to $400,000 to individuals or groups who design an effective method for analyzing a large data set of first-time pregnancies and identifying risk factors for adverse outcomes, such as hypertensive disorders, diabetes and infection. A total of $50,000 will be awarded to each of seven winners designing the most effective means to analyze the data. An additional $10,000 will be awarded to the top five winners whose methods identify risk factors in disadvantaged populations.
Director's Corner: A Mother’s Day Message: Time for Action to Improve Maternal Health
NICHD Director Dr. Diana Bianchi is joined by NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health Director Dr. Janine Clayton in assessing the growing maternal health crisis in the United States and describing NIH’s efforts to address it.
Director's Corner: One Year of Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, and Anticipating New Challenges
Looking back and looking ahead. NICHD Director Dr. Diana W. Bianchi joins other leaders across NIH in reflecting on the work of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program and discussing plans for the future.
Director's Corner: Advancing Research to Understand, Treat, and Prevent Long COVID
For many COVID-19 patients, full recovery remains elusive even long after they should feel “better.” NIH recently announced research opportunities to understand COVID-19 long haulers, who have what researchers now refer to as Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). NICHD joins these opportunities while remaining focused on PASC patients within our audiences of interest—pregnant and lactating people, children, and those with disabilities.
Release: NIH funds study to evaluate remdesivir for COVID-19 in pregnancy
A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health will evaluate the effects of remdesivir in pregnant women who have been prescribed the drug to treat COVID-19. The study, which will be conducted at 17 sites in the continental United States and Puerto Rico, aims to determine how pregnant women metabolize the drug and whether there are any potential side effects.
Media Advisory: NIH calls for greater inclusion of pregnant and lactating people in COVID-19 vaccine research
Pregnant people need to be protected through research rather than from research, the authors contend.