News

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.

Pregnant people with a thyroid hormone imbalance have a higher risk for low thyroid hormone a year after they give birth.

Newborns managed with a new care approach for opioid withdrawal were more likely than those receiving traditional care to breastfeed. The findings provide evidence that the care approach may help increase breastfeeding among infants experiencing opioid withdrawal.

Compared to White women without disabilities and other women of their own racial or ethnic group, minority women have a higher risk for unintended pregnancy.

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

NICHD researchers found changes in DNA methylation of children born to older mothers. The children have changes in DNA tags, called methyl groups, which switch genes on and off. The findings may provide an explanation for the slightly higher health risks children born to older parents have.

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.

Individuals born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy and when they were children may be at an increased risk for high blood pressure and diabetes.

A report issued by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine makes recommendations to improve the safe and ethical inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in clinical research while reducing the risk of liability. Enhancing inclusion of pregnant and lactating people in clinical research promises to help people and their health care providers make informed decisions.

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

NIH has announced finalists in its competition to accelerate the development of diagnostic and monitoring technologies to improve fetal health outcomes.

Tiny, balloon-like particles released from the placenta could provide clues to identify fetuses at risk for growth restriction early so that pregnancies could be monitored for complications.

There were more than 2.5 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia in the United States in 2022. NICHD research aims to prevent these and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among women, infants, children, and adolescents. Focus areas include addressing the need for additional STI prevention methods for women and curbing the rise in congenital syphilis cases.

Preterm infants born to people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 had roughly the same levels of antibodies to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as term infants born to vaccinated people, allaying concerns that fewer antibodies might pass to preterm infants.

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.

An atlas of the placenta developed by NIH researchers offers insight on the communication that occurs between maternal and fetal cells during labor and delivery.

Researchers linked malformations in stillborn infants to copy number variants—lengths of DNA in which hereditary material is duplicated or deleted. What they learned could lead provide information helpful to parents and for pregnancy care.

A questionnaire detecting strong emotional responses to traumatic births could help identify new mothers at risk for developing childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder. It may lead to faster diagnosis—and treatment—of post traumatic stress disorder in new mothers.

Pregnant people who tested positive for cannabis use were at 27% higher risk for conditions related to poor placental function—including hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, stillbirth, and growth restriction relative to gestational age—than pregnant people who tested negative.