News

How early can a baby be born and not only survive but thrive? Dr. Bianchi discusses continued progress in saving extremely preterm infants and highlights NICHD’s efforts to prevent preterm births and improve the care of premature babies.

Infants born during the pandemic—regardless of whether their mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy—scored slightly lower on certain tests of neurodevelopment at 6 months old, compared to a similar group of infants born before the pandemic, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that children born during the pandemic may need long-term monitoring to rapidly identify any future lags in development. The researchers theorized that maternal stress resulting from the pandemic could have effects on children’s neurodevelopment.

Women who breastfed for two years or longer had higher blood levels of anti-Müllerian hormone and later onset of menopause, compared to women who breastfed for one month or less, according to an NICHD-supported analysis. The findings also suggest that previously observed relationships between menopause timing and the number of times a woman gave birth may be largely attributable to breastfeeding.

A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health contradicts the current recommendation that women with obesity should lose weight before trying to conceive. The study of more than 300 women with obesity found no difference in the proportion of live births among women with unexplained infertility who lost weight before infertility treatment and a similar group who did not lose weight before treatment.

Taking supplemental docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) during pregnancy may decrease the risk of preterm birth. A new NICHD-supported study offers a potential explanation for this effect by suggesting that a daily 1,000-milligram dose of DHA influences certain inflammatory immune responses linked to childbirth.

COVID-19 vaccination does not affect the chances of conceiving a child, according to a study of more than 2,000 couples that was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Researchers found no differences in the chances of conception if either male or female partner had been vaccinated, compared to unvaccinated couples. However, couples had a slightly lower chance of conception if the male partner had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 within 60 days before a menstrual cycle, suggesting that COVID-19 could temporarily reduce male fertility.

Small NIH study contributes to understanding of COVID-19 during pregnancy.

The survival rate of extremely preterm infants born from 2013 through 2018 in a large network of U.S. research centers improved to 78.3%, compared to 76% for infants born in the network from 2008 to 2012, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

An individual’s risk for death by suicide may begin before they are born, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The authors compared pregnancy and birth records of nearly 50,000 individuals born between 1959 and 1966 to death records through 2016. They found that suicide rates were higher for males, white people, and for those who were among the younger siblings in a family. Other risk factors included having a parent with less than a high school education, having a parent who worked a manual labor job, and having a mother with a high rate of pregnancy complications or who smoked during pregnancy.

Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2021.

More than a third of U.S. physicians do not know their legal requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). More than 70% of physicians did not know that they share responsibility with patients to determine reasonable accommodations—how to adjust policies, practices, and procedures to ensure patient care.

As we ring in the new year, 2022 marks a special milestone—the 60th anniversary of NICHD.

Women receiving one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during a single menstrual cycle had an increase in cycle length of nearly one day, according to an NIH-funded study.

Sleep-disordered breathing in early pregnancy is associated with insulin resistance or difficulty clearing glucose from the blood, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The results strengthen the link between sleep-disordered breathing, which includes pauses or slowing of breathing during sleep, and gestational diabetes. They also suggest that screening pregnant women, particularly those with overweight or obesity, for sleep-disordered breathing could identify those who might benefit from early interventions to reduce their diabetes risk.

Pregnant women with disabilities have a much higher risk for severe pregnancy- and birth-related complications and death than other pregnant women, according to findings by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Appearing in JAMA Network Open, the analysis of more than 223,000 deliveries in 19 U.S. hospitals found that roughly 2,199 women had a disability.

It just got easier to participate in the PregSource®: Crowdsourcing to Understand Pregnancy research project. The free app allows participants to track their weight, sleep, mood, and other features of their pregnancy in just a few taps.

Dr. Bianchi discusses NICHD-led research on long COVID in children.

Awarded projects seek to reduce pregnancy complications and prevent maternal deaths.

Dr. Grewal has been acting director of the division since February 2020.

Specialized regions in infant brains appear to respond to visual information in much the same way adult brains do, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Located in the visual cortex, these brain regions selectively process faces, bodies, or scenes. Previously, researchers had believed that it took years for these regions to develop before they would function like an adult’s visual cortex. The findings may provide information helpful for understanding disorders in which facial recognition is impaired, such as autism spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder.