Stillbirth Working Group of Council

NICHD formed the Stillbirth Working Group of Council, a subgroup of NICHD’s National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council, in response to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) request to lead a congressionally mandated task force to examine stillbirth in the United States, with a focus on the following issues:

  • Current barriers to collecting data on U.S. stillbirths
  • Communities at higher risk for stillbirth
  • Psychological impact and treatment for mothers following stillbirth
  • Known risk factors for stillbirth

The working group began holding meetings in October 2022 to discuss how to address these issues, and presented its recommendations to the NACHHD Council in January 2023.

The working group released its final report to HHS, Working to Address the Tragedy of Stillbirth (PDF 941 KB), on March 15, 2023. In July 2024, they released a follow-up implementation recommendations report (PDF 445 KB).

Wanda Barfield, M.D., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: wjb5@cdc.gov

Amanda Cohn, M.D.
Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: acohn@cdc.gov

Deborah Conway, M.D.
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Email: adamsb2@uthscsa.edu; conway@uthscsa.edu

Carla DeSisto, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: wup5@cdc.gov

Ada Dieke, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: vts5@cdc.gov

Donald Dudley, M.D.
University of Virginia    
Email: dd7ss@virginia.edu

Andrew Fullerton, M.P.P., Representative of the March of Dimes
March of Dimes
Email: afullerton@marchofdimes.org

Isabelle Horon, Dr.P.H.
Reproductive Statistics Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of Vital Statistics
Email: ibh3@cdc.gov

Lucky Jain, M.D., Co-Chair
Emory University
Email: ljain@emory.edu

Denise Jamieson, M.D., M.P.H.
Emory University
Email: djamieson@emory.edu

Stephanie Leonard, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Email: sleo@standford.edu; stephanie.leonard@stanford.edu

Jenna Nobles, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: jnobles@ssc.wisc.edu

Tina Pattara-Lau, M.D.
Office of Clinical and Preventive Services, Indian Health Service
Email: tina.pattara-lau@ihs.gov

Sonja Rasmussen, M.D., M.S.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Email: srasmus2@jhu.edu

Uma M. Reddy, M.D., M.P.H., Co-Chair; Representative for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Email: ur2137@columbia.edu

Jennita Reefhuis, Ph.D.
Birth Defects Monitoring and Research Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: nzr5@cdc.gov

Robert M. Silver, M.D., Representative for Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
University of Utah Health Sciences Center
Email: bob.silver@hsc.utah.edu

Catherine Vladutiu, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration
Email: cvladutiu@hrsa.gov

Maeve Wallace, Ph.D.
Tulane University School of Public Health
Email: mwallace@tulane.edu

Monica H. Wojcik, M.D.
Boston Children’s Hospital
Email: monica.wojcik@childrens.harvard.edu

Meetings

More Information

  • At the January 2023 NACHHD Council meeting, council members discussed preliminary working group recommendations (presentation and discussion begins at 1:30:41 in the VideoCast recording).
  • NOT-HD-22-054: Request for Information: Developing Strategies to Strengthen Research on Stillbirth Prevention

Contacts

Natasha H. Williams, Ph.D., J.D., L.L.M., M.P.H.
Legislation and Public Policy Branch
natasha.williams@nih.gov

Monica Longo, M.D.
Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch
monica.longo@nih.gov

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