NICHD News Releases

Just in Time for Mother’s Day: Let the Baby Set the Delivery Date!
The NICHD’s National Child and Maternal Health Education Program and its coordinating committee members unite to let mothers know that they should wait until at least 39 weeks to deliver their babies unless medically necessary.

Drug safety for children and pregnant women topic of March NICHD Director’s Podcast
Once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a drug, physicians can use their best judgment to prescribe it to their patients—whether or not their patients are similar to those who took part in the clinical trials. Physicians can also prescribe drugs for diseases or conditions other than those for which they were originally tested.

Scientific Vision: The Next Decade
The NICHD embarked upon a collaborative process in 2011 to create a scientific Vision, identifying the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and its partners to pursue over the next decade. The newly published Scientific Vision statement presents the results of that process and outlines scientific goals for the coming decade.

Research for a Lifetime: Commemorating the NICHD’s 50th Anniversary
On October 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the legislation establishing the NICHD to examine “the complex process of human development from conception to old age.” The Institute marks its golden anniversary with Research for a Lifetime, an all-day scientific colloquium to highlight the Institute’s mission, accomplishments, and future research directions.

Audio Briefing: NIH Researchers Develop Nanoprobe Treatment for Animal Model of Cerebral Palsy
The Chief of NICHD's Perinatology Research Branch and his colleagues recently held a news briefing to describe a prototype treatment for an animal model of cerebral palsy. The researchers injected a bacterial toxin into the uteruses of pregnant rabbits. Like human patients with cerebral palsy, the baby rabbits developed a severe disability affecting their ability to move. When injected with nanoparticles carrying an anti-inflammatory drug, the baby rabbits recovered much of their movement ability.

Study Shows Additional Benefits of Progesterone in Reducing Preterm Birth Risk
An analysis of five previous studies has uncovered additional evidence of the effectiveness of progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone, in reducing the rate of preterm birth among a high-risk category of women.

Progesterone Reduces Rate of Early Preterm Birth in at Risk Women
A National Institutes of Health study has found that progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone, reduced the rate of preterm birth before the 33rd week of pregnancy by 45 percent among one category of at risk women.

NICHD Scientific Lead on Surgeon General's Conference on Preventing Preterm Birth
​The Office of the Surgeon General named the NICHD as the scientific lead for its upcoming conference on the prevention of preterm birth.