News

Children as young as 6 years old who underwent fetal surgery to repair a common birth defect of the spine are more likely to walk independently and have fewer follow-up surgeries, compared to those who had traditional corrective surgery after birth, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Daily low-dose aspirin, from as early as the sixth week of pregnancy through the 36th week, may lower the risk for preterm birth among first-time mothers, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Women who breastfed their infants exclusively for 7 to 12 months may have a significantly lower risk of early menopause than their peers who breastfed their infants for less than a month, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Read about NICHD’s notable research findings and activities from 2019.

Identical twins with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience large differences in symptom severity even though they share the same DNA, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that identifying the causes of this variability may inform the treatment of ASD-related symptoms.

More than 20% of pregnant women beginning anti-HIV treatment were prescribed an antiretroviral treatment that did not meet federal guidelines for use during pregnancy, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health.

NICHD’s new initiative—Pregnancy for Every Body—educates plus-size pregnant women about healthy pregnancy and the importance of working with a healthcare provider to develop a pregnancy plan.

Milking the umbilical cord—gently squeezing the cord and pushing the contents into the newborn’s abdomen before clamping the cord—could increase the risk for severe intraventricular hemorrhage, or bleeding into the brain’s fluid-filled cavities, in extremely preterm infants, according to results of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health that was halted for safety concerns.

Children born to women on HIV therapy containing the drug efavirenz were 2 to 2.5 times more likely to have microcephaly, or small head size, compared to children born to women on regimens of other antiretroviral drugs, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. The children with microcephaly also had a higher risk for developmental delays, compared to children with normal head size.

Adolescents who had a positive relationship with their families were less likely to have depressive symptoms not only in adolescence, but also in midlife, according to an analysis funded by the NICHD.

The Trans-NIH Fragile X Coordinating Committee, led by NICHD, recently published the final NIH Strategic Research Plan on FMR1-Associated Conditions.

A new imaging technique to track maternal blood flow to the placenta has the potential to help diagnose several common complications in early pregnancy, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Researchers used the technique, referred to as pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (pCASL MRI), to identify women with reduced placental blood flow who later developed one or more complications.

Many carriers of the FMR1 premutation—a mutation in the gene associated with the developmental disorder Fragile X syndrome—may have subtle changes in grip strength, fine motor control, and reaction time before other symptoms develop, according to a small study supported in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Exposure to acetaminophen in the womb may increase a child’s risk for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.

A study of Wisconsin Medicaid enrollees with Down syndrome has found that more than half of those ages 55 and older have filed at least three claims for dementia and nearly a third have filed at least three claims for Alzheimer’s disease. The analysis was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.

The mouse X chromosome contains two amplicons—regions in which a single gene is copied multiple times—that appear to control male fertility and offspring sex ratios, an NIH-funded study suggests. The findings could provide insight into male infertility among humans.

A study from federal researchers shows that information about ways to reduce the risk of sleep-related infant deaths is not reaching all caregivers or healthcare providers.

Early life adversity among female baboons is directly linked to lower survival rates for their offspring, suggests an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study includes 45 years of data from a wild baboon population and overcomes a limitation of analyses of human populations, which have had difficulty distinguishing environmental effects on parents from environmental effects on children.

Children born to women who have high blood levels of lead are more likely be overweight or obese, compared to those whose mothers have low levels of lead in their blood, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and Health Resources and Services Administration.

Sleeping on the back or side through the 30th week of pregnancy does not appear to increase the risk of stillbirth, reduced size at birth, or high blood pressure disorders of pregnancy, suggests an analysis funded by the NICHD.