News & Updates

Preeclampsia is a condition in which a woman with previously normal blood pressure develops high blood pressure at 20 weeks of pregnancy or later. It can be life-threatening and can lead to serious short- and long-term health problems for the mother and her fetus.

Pregnant mothers’ exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza.

As National Women’s Health Week (May 12 to 18) gets underway this year, the NICHD takes stock of 15 years of research on diagnosing, preventing, and treating PFDs—a groups of conditions that particularly affect women.

NICHD's National Child and Maternal Health Education Program (NCMHEP) is working with its Coordinating Committee member organizations to promote a set of three patient-focused videos.

The Division’s 2012 Annual Report highlights the extensive and comprehensive work of DESPR investigators and researchers.

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.

Pregnant women who experienced financial, emotional or other personal stress in the year before their delivery had an increased chance of having a stillbirth, say researchers who conducted a National Institutes of Health network study.

text4baby External Web Site Policy is a free service that delivers important health information about the stages of pregnancy and baby’s first year to the cell phones and mobile devices of moms-to-be and new moms. Since its launch in February 2010, the program has sent more than 62 million messages. With more than 500,000 subscribers, text4baby is the largest “app” of its kind.

An independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health has concluded that despite potential advantages of adopting a new diagnostic approach for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), more evidence is needed to ensure that the benefits outweigh the harms. The panel recommended following the current diagnostic approach until further studies are conducted.

For more than 30 years, a major goal of NICHD has been to reduce MTCT of HIV and other infections. Institute-supported research has identified practices and drug combinations that are very effective in preventing MTCT of HIV. As a result of this research, transmission rates in the United States have dropped to less than 1%.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health plan to determine whether elevated blood sugar during pregnancy, a less-severe condition than gestational diabetes, influences later levels of body fat in children and development of diabetes in mothers after giving birth.

Is It Worth It?—new videos from the NICHD National Child and Maternal Health Education Program (NCMHEP), explain the benefits of carrying a pregnancy to at least 39 weeks unless there is a medical reason to deliver earlier.

On December, 13, 2011, the NICHD collaborated with the Foundation for the NIH to host a scientific symposium to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the NCMRR and to provide a forum for discussions of the Center’s history and accomplishments.

On December 5, 2012, the NICHD released the Scientific Vision: The Next Decade, the culmination of a collaborative process that began in 2011 to identify the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and the research community to pursue over the next decade. The Vision statement was made available during the NICHD’s 50th anniversary colloquium.

The November 2012 NICHD Director’s podcast is now online. This month’s podcast featured presenters from a recent NICHD Exchange program, “Sleep: the ABC’s of Zs.” The NICHD Exchange is a series of quarterly meetings in which NICHD administrators and scientists present relevant findings designed to spur thought provoking conversations to inform the NICHD research effort.

A more precise method for examining a fetus' genetic material may help detect abnormalities in 40 percent more cases of stillbirth than does the traditional method, according to a National Institutes of Health network study.

​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.

A document charting a research course for the many collaborators who share an interest in promoting the science concerning human development through the life span, child health, women's health, and rehabilitation research is now available online.

As the Institute marks its golden anniversary, we look back on the NICHD's early years, its scientific accomplishments, and its future.

​Couples with high levels of PCBs and similar environmental pollutants take longer to achieve pregnancy in comparison to other couples with lower levels of the pollutants, according to a preliminary study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.