The National Institutes of Health has launched a $3 million challenge competition to encourage community-based and advocacy organizations in the United States to develop the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to conduct maternal health research.
News
NICHD issues News Releases and Media Advisories to the news media. Spotlight and Research Feature articles explain NICHD research findings and public health issues to the general public. An Item of Interest is a short announcement of relevant information, such as a notable staff change.
Media Advisory: NIH-funded researchers develop same-day test to detect abnormal fetal chromosomes
Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a same-day test to identify abnormal fetal chromosomes.
Item of Interest: NIH to establish Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence
NIH recently released three funding opportunity announcements inviting applications for the Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence initiative, which will develop and evaluate innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity.
Spotlight: Scientific advances from the Division of Intramural Research
The Division of Intramural Research provides fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems through basic, clinical, and population-based research.
Science Update: Pregnant people with disabilities at higher risk for intimate partner violence, NIH-funded study suggests
Compared to pregnant people without a disability, pregnant people with disabilities may have about two and a half times the risk of experiencing intimate partner violence in the year before pregnancy and during pregnancy, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study authors conclude that health care providers should be vigilant in screening persons with disabilities for intimate partner violence before and during pregnancy and refer them to appropriate information and resources.
Science Update: Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may offer slightly greater protection during pregnancy than Johnson & Johnson vaccine, NIH-funded study suggests
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may offer slightly more protection during pregnancy against SARS-CoV-2, compared to the Jansen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Vaccination during the first and third trimesters appears to result in higher antibody-stimulated immune responses than vaccination in the second trimester. It also may lead to greater transfer of antibodies from maternal blood to the placenta.
Science Update: Hormone prevents obesity in offspring of pregnant mice with obesity, according to NIH-funded study
Giving the hormone adiponectin to pregnant mice with obesity prevented later life obesity and related health conditions in their offspring, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that adiponectin, a hormone produced by fat cells, could play a role in reducing the lifelong obesity risk of children born to mothers with obesity during pregnancy.
Science Update: Placental inflammation could explain link between air pollution and pregnancy complications, NIH-funded study in mice suggests
The increase in pregnancy complications linked to air pollution exposure could result from the pollutants’ direct effects on the placenta, suggests a study in mice funded by the National Institutes of Health. Placentas of mice exposed to a mixture of common urban air pollutants before and during pregnancy were inflamed and had a loss of blood vessel cells. The study authors say the findings could provide insight into how air pollution might affect pregnancies and lead to strategies for preventing pregnancy complications.
Science Update: Pre-pregnancy obesity may increase child asthma risk, NIH study suggests
Maternal obesity before pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma in early childhood, suggests a study by the National Institutes of Health. Children born to mothers with obesity were more likely than those born to mothers without obesity to have persistent wheezing, an indication of asthma.
Science Update: Placental genetic material in maternal blood could potentially diagnose gestational diabetes early, small NIH-funded study suggests
A new method to detect genetic material from the placenta in the blood of pregnant people could potentially identify the risk for gestational, or pregnancy-related, diabetes in the first trimester, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Director's Corner: Visualizing The Placenta, a Critical but Poorly Understood Organ
The placenta supports pregnancy and influences the lifelong health of both mother and child. Yet it is the least understood, and least studied, of all human organs. In a guest post for the NIH Director’s Blog, Dr. Bianchi discusses work from NICHD’s Human Placenta Project to understand how the placenta functions in real time during pregnancy.
Spotlight: Scientific advances from the Division of Intramural Research
The Division of Intramural Research provides fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems through basic, clinical, and population-based research.
Science Update: Scientists develop noninvasive method to predict congenital CMV infection
Researchers have developed a calculator to estimate the risk that cytomegalovirus (CMV) will pass to a fetus during pregnancy. By offering a noninvasive way to predict the chance of congenital CMV based on individual characteristics, this tool may help healthcare providers counsel pregnant people with CMV.
Spotlight: Scientific advances from the Division of Intramural Research
The Division of Intramural Research provides fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems through basic, clinical, and population-based research.
Spotlight: Decoded: Data-Driven Solutions to Optimize Health and Outcomes for First-time Mothers
To help spur innovation against a growing maternal health crisis, NICHD launched the Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge last year. Learn about the winning proposals.
Science Update: Maternal pregnancy complications may increase risk of infant health effects, NIH-funded study suggests
Life-threatening pregnancy complications known as severe maternal morbidity (SMM) appear to be associated with an increased length of hospital stay for infants and an increase in the cost of caring for them, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings support the hypothesis that infants of mothers with SMM may also be at risk for severe complications. The authors concluded that helping patients to reduce their risk factors—in early pregnancy or before conception—may reduce the chances for SMM and improve the health of infants.
Science Update: COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy may help protect offspring from SARS-CoV-2 through age 6 months, small NIH-funded study suggests
Vaccinating women against SARS-CoV-2 in mid to late pregnancy could provide their infants at least some protection against COVID-19 through six months of age, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Compared to infants born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy, infants born to vaccinated mothers were much more likely to have antibodies against the virus.
Release: NIH-funded study suggests COVID-19 increases risk of pregnancy complications
Pregnant women with COVID-19 appear to be at greater risk for common pregnancy complications—in addition to health risks from the virus—than pregnant women without COVID-19, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Science Update: Children born during pandemic may experience slight neurodevelopmental delays, NIH-funded study suggests
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.
Science Update: Weight loss before infertility treatment does not improve live birth rate in unexplained infertility, NIH-funded study suggests
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.