News & Updates

Breastfeeding can help optimize your newborn’s health. But challenging circumstances can often bring breastfeeding to a halt. Achieving the recommended 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding for baby often requires a broad network of support from your partner, family, providers, community, and workplace. Read more about common challenges and resources that can help you overcome them.

​The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz (Fiocruz) begin a multi-country study to evaluate the magnitude of health risks that Zika virus infection poses to pregnant women and their developing fetuses and infants.

Proper maternal folate levels during pregnancy may protect children from a future risk of obesity, especially those born to obese mothers, according to a study funded by NICHD.

Countering the stigma and isolation often felt with depression and anxiety disorders around pregnancy is central to a new initiative launched in May, Moms’ Mental Health Matters.

NICHD has launched an observational study of pregnant women in Brazil to help improve understanding of the effects of Zika virus infection on reproductive health and the developing fetus. The study augments an existing project in Brazil on cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during pregnancy, expanding the project’s scope to include Zika virus.

While the imminent threat of a global Ebola epidemic has faded, the impact of the outbreak in West Africa was severe, and its effects will continue to be felt for years to come. The virus ravaged communities in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, leaving more than 11,000 people dead.

Infants exposed to more than one language may be better able than their monolingual counterparts to see a situation from another point of view, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers may now add data from NICHD-funded studies directly to the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH).

Following advice to sleep in the same room with their infants —but not in the same bed—does not appear to discourage new mothers from breastfeeding, as some experts had feared, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Prenatal steroid therapy reduces the chance of respiratory complications among infants born at 34-36 weeks, so-called “late” preterm infants, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health research network.

Over the past year, NICHD contributed to numerous scientific advances and key initiatives.

Children are most likely to get HIV from their mothers in one of three ways: in the womb, during birth, or from breastfeeding or breast milk. NICHD research has helped establish safe and effective ways to prevent this type of HIV transmission. Check out our infographic to learn more.

The drug-susceptible form of Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacterium that inhabits the body, may account for a greater number of infections among hospitalized newborns than the antibiotic-resistant form, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

HIV-infected children exposed in the womb to nevirapine, a drug used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, can safely and effectively transition to efavirenz, a similar drug recommended for older children and adults, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Children infected with HIV since birth benefit from two doses of the chickenpox vaccine, particularly when the first dose is given at least three months after the initiation of anti-HIV treatment, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Brain scans taken of newborns who received cooling treatment after blood or oxygen deprivation to the brain can predict the extent of a child’s recovery by 6 or 7 years of age, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research network.

In an effort to boost HIV testing, as well as the use of anti-HIV therapy among pregnant women in rural villages, researchers supported in part by NICHD assessed the effectiveness of a church-based screening program in Southern Nigeria.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have shown that treating hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, in newborns according to current recommendations is safe and appears to prevent brain damage. 

Dr. Cathy Spong became NICHD’s acting director on October 1, 2015. Here she shares her plans for the year and her thoughts on what makes NICHD so unique.

Infants exposed in the womb to a drug used to treat HIV and reduce the transmission of HIV from mother to child, may have lower bone mineral content than those exposed to other anti-HIV drugs, according to a National Institutes of Health study.