News & Updates

​Preterm births have fallen for the fifth straight year in a row, reported the National Center for Health Statistics of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in one of its recent National Vital Statistics Reports. This welcome decline was seen for all groups, and for each stage of pregnancy.

​Oral medication for treating a type of incontinence in women is roughly as effective as Botox injections to the bladder, reported researchers who conducted a National Institutes of Health clinical trials network study, with each form of treatment having benefits and limitations.

​The September 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives, the NICHD’s monthly podcast, is now online. The podcast features discussions of research on how a gene found in a rare cancer increases red blood cell production, the involvement of “dark matter” DNA in the body’s response to day and night cycles, and on cesarean delivery versus labor for preterm infants.

​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced that Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., has been named Associate Director for Extramural Research at the NICHD after a rigorous national search. Dr. Spong previously has served as the Chief of NICHD’s Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch.

​Lynne Mofenson, M.D., Chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch, received the Federal Employee of the Year Award from the Partnership for Public Service. The award is one of nine Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals bestowed on public servants who make "high-impact contributions to the health, safety and well-being of Americans."

​The U.S. national campaign to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome has entered a new phase and will now encompass all sleep-related, sudden unexpected infant deaths, officials of the National Institutes of Health announced today.

​The August 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives, the NICHD’s monthly podcast, is now online. The August podcast features research on how the stresses of poverty may affect learning in young children, the effects of fetal alcohol exposure, and how the ability to estimate quantities changes across the lifespan.

​The National Institutes of Health has announced grant awards of $100 million over five years for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) research program, which will feature projects investigating sex differences in autism spectrum disorders, or ASD, and investigating ASD and limited speech.

​The stresses of poverty—such as crowded conditions, financial worry, and lack of adequate child care—lead to impaired learning ability in children from impoverished backgrounds, according to a theory by a researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health. The theory is based on several years of studies matching stress hormone levels to behavioral and school readiness test results in young children from impoverished backgrounds.

​The National Institutes of Health is seeking proposals for research projects on the implications of information obtained from sequencing the genome to identify diseases in newborns. The intent of funding such projects is to further the understanding of disorders that appear during the newborn period and to improve treatments for these diseases.

The July 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives, the NICHD’s monthly podcast, is now online.  This month’s podcast features research sponsored by the NICHD’s Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch.

The June 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives—NICHD' monthly podcast series—features discussions of a treatment that reduces the body temperatures of infants who experience oxygen deficiency at birth, the effectiveness of progesterone as a treatment for the infertility associated with polycystic ovary syndrome, and the influence that engaging the attention of young children with autism has on their language development.

An intervention in which adults actively engaged the attention of preschool children with autism by pointing to toys and using other gestures to focus their attention results in a long term increase in language skills, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Adding the drug nevirapine to the regimen given to newborns of women diagnosed with HIV shortly before or during labor halves the newborns' risk of contracting the virus, according to findings by a National Institutes of Health research network.

Children exposed to HIV in the womb may be more likely to experience hearing loss by age 16 than are their unexposed peers, according to scientists in a National Institutes of Health research network.

Surgery to repair pelvic organ prolapse often carries a risk of incontinence. To avoid scheduling a second surgery, some women may opt to have a second procedure to reduce incontinence at the time of their prolapse repair surgery.

Young men being treated for HIV are more likely to experience low bone mass than are other men their age, according to results from a research network supported by the National Institutes of Health. The findings indicate that physicians who care for these patients should monitor them regularly for signs of bone thinning, which could foretell a risk for fractures. The young men in the study did not have HIV at birth and had been diagnosed with HIV an average of two years earlier.

Secretary Sebelius addressed the researchers at the Network's Annual Steering Committee meeting this month. The Network, established by the NICHD and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to prevent maternal and infant deaths and illnesses worldwide. Scientists from developing countries, together with those in the United States, lead teams that identify the health needs of an area and address those needs through randomized clinical trials to test treatments and interventions.

A treatment to reduce the body temperatures of infants who experience oxygen deficiency at birth has benefits into early childhood, according to a follow-up study by a National Institutes of Health research network.

The Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) has selected the NICHD Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS) as its 'Trial of the Year.'