Patient advocates, healthcare providers and researchers help map a future research agenda aimed at reducing maternal mortality and severe morbidity.
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 scientists call attention to the impact of opioids on women and children
In an editorial, Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., NICHD Director and Matthew W. Gillman, M.D., S.M., emphasize that women and children bear a substantial burden of the U.S. opioid epidemic and that coordinated, long-term research is essential to filling knowledge gaps about how opioids affect women and children.
Spotlight: How artificial intelligence and other new technologies are advancing healthcare
Scientists and engineers are pioneering new tools and methods to advance healthcare in revolutionary ways. Learn about emerging technologies funded by NICHD.
Spotlight: Maternal Health Research Advances
NICHD was established more than 50 years ago to help understand maternal health and improve pregnancy outcomes. These selected advances highlight NICHD’s contributions to advancing the health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers, and families everywhere.
Item of Interest: NIH-led Task Force on Pregnancy and Lactation to Host Webinar on May 22
Group seeks to enhance testing of therapeutics used by pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Science Update: The earlier in pregnancy a woman quits smoking, the lower the chance of preterm birth, NICHD-funded analysis suggests
The earlier in pregnancy a woman quits smoking, the less likely she is to give birth preterm, according to an analysis funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Similarly, the study found that the more a pregnant woman smoked, the higher her chances for preterm birth.
Podcast: Research on Maternal Deaths and Childbirth Complications
Each year in the United States, 700 women die from pregnancy or childbirth complications – one of the highest maternal death rates in the developed world. Listen to Milestones interview with Dr. Juanita Chinn from NICHD’s Population Dynamics Branch.
Release: Daily folic acid supplement may reduce risk of gestational diabetes
Taking a folic acid supplement daily before pregnancy may reduce the risk of gestational, or pregnancy-related, diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.
Science Update: Girls may comprise up to 90 percent of U.S. teens killed by an intimate partner, NICHD-funded analysis suggests
Approximately 90 percent of teens killed by an intimate partner in the United States are girls, suggests an analysis funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The deaths identified in the study most commonly resulted after the victim either ended or would not enter a romantic relationship with the perpetrator or started a relationship with someone else. The findings provide information for researchers developing interventions to prevent intimate partner homicides among teens.
Media Advisory: NIH to Host Community Engagement Forum on Improving Maternal Health
On April 8, 2019, join community organizations and healthcare professionals to discuss strategies for reducing the rising rate of maternal deaths in the United States.
Media Advisory: NIH-led task force on pregnancy and lactation receives two-year renewal
Secretary of Health and Human Services renews task force for an additional two years. Task force members will offer guidance and advice on implementing 15 recommendations they submitted in September 2018.
Media Advisory: Lower costs associated with late-preterm steroid therapy, NIH-funded analysis finds
An analysis of a previous study has found more evidence to support giving the steroid betamethasone to pregnant women at risk of late-preterm delivery (between 34 and 36 weeks of gestation), according to a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hospital stays for infants whose mothers received the drug cost less on average, compared to stays for infants whose mothers did not take the drug.
Media Advisory: Rate of life-threatening childbirth complications increasing sharply across U.S. racial, ethnic groups
Racial and ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity—life-threatening maternal complications associated with childbirth—have persisted and increased at high rates among U.S. women, according to an analysis of nearly 20 years of California hospital records funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Media Advisory: Inexpensive supplement for women increases infant birth size
For women in resource-poor settings, taking a certain daily nutritional supplement before conception or in early pregnancy may provide enough of a boost to improve growth of the fetus, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Science Update: NIH-funded mouse study links weight gain in pregnancy to obesity in later life
Excessive weight gain during pregnancy could permanently slow metabolism and lead to weight gain in later life, according to the results of a mouse study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Science Update: Known risk factors may account for only part of the U.S. increase in life-threatening childbirth complications
The increasing rate in the United States of severe maternal morbidity—life-threatening maternal childbirth complications—may not be accounted for by the simultaneous increase in known risk factors for these complications, suggests an analysis of California hospital records funded by the National Institutes of Health. To reduce the rate of severe maternal morbidity, more research is needed to identify additional risk factors and other potential causes for the increase, the authors concluded.
Science Update: Females with a concussion more likely than males to have neck injury, NIH-funded study suggests
Women and girls with a concussion are more likely than males to have a neck injury, according to an analysis of emergency department visits funded by the NICHD. The finding suggests that physicians evaluating females for concussion should also consider evaluating them for neck injury so that they can benefit from treatment as soon as possible.
Science Update: NIH-funded study finds no increased risk of newborn heart malformations from anti-nausea drug
Contrary to earlier studies, a National Institutes of Health funded analysis of records from more than 88,000 pregnancies in which women took the anti-nausea drug ondansetron found no increased risk for newborn heart malformations and only a slightly increased risk for cleft lip and palate.
Media Advisory: NICHD chronicles its major research advances of 2018
As 2018 winds down, a new slideshow highlights a selection of initiatives, therapies, and scientific advances supported by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Media Advisory: Pelvic floor disorders linked to mode of delivery among first-time mothers
A first-time mother’s risk of pelvic floor disorders is strongly associated with how her baby is delivered, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Pelvic floor disorders are thought to result from weakening or injury of the muscles, ligaments and connective tissue in the lowest part of the pelvis.