The National Institute of Health has launched a five -year consortium on dead $ 37 million in the main efforts to reduce what it called in the country “unacceptable high” stakes.
The announcement last week is delighted with doctors, researchers and families and represented the obligations to the agency’s priority, the death of the expected child for 20 weeks or more.
“The fact that we are truly excited is not only investment in trying to prevent stillborn, but also to continue working with the community to direct research,” said in an interview with Ellison Chernich, acting director of the National Institute of Health of Children and Human Development.
Four clinical sites and one data coordination center covering the country – California, Oregon, Utah, New York and North Carolina – will gather to form a consortium, each brings their experience. Most focus on predicting and preventing stillbirths, although they also plan to resolve fear and mental health after loss. Studies show that with more than 20,000 dead in the US each year, annually, Already 25% can be prevented. For supplies for 37 weeks or more, this figure jumps up to almost half.
Teams plan to meet on Friday for the first time to discuss possible research goals. These include: understanding why some placenta does not get, and the fruits do not grow properly; assessment of fetal decline; Considering the best times for delivery and use of advanced technologies to learn how blood tests, biomarkers and ultrasound can help predict the stillborn. They can also evaluate how electronic medical documents and artificial intelligence can help doctors and nurses identify early signs of the risk of stillbirths. While the announcement was not mentioned racial disproportionsA spokesman said the consortium hopes to determine the factors that determine who is more at risk of having a stillborn.
For many families, the destruction of the stillborn is accompanied by the lack of answers, including how and why the loss occurred. The teams will cooperate with the Nedenborn Community through Advisory groups. The North Carolina team will observe the collection and standardization of data. Incomplete, delay and sometimes inaccurate The data is stillborn was an obstacle to the prevention of effort.
“If we could see the signs and deliver the baby earlier so I have a living baby, I think what we all hope,” said Dr. Synthi Jimfi-Bannerman, chairman and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at San Diego University.
The consortium follows the national shift in the conversation around a deadborn, which has long caused public health problems. Propublica started Report on the stillborn In 2022 and in 2025 the information organization released a documentary After the life of three women trying to make pregnancy safer in America after their stillborn.
Debbie Hein Vivevergia, who participated in the documentary, spent years, asking Congress to support the legislation on the dead and Calling on legislators to pass A high -rigy improvement in health and education (shine) for the autumn act, named after her stillborn daughter Autumn joy. Two days later, NIH announced a consortium, republican and democratic members of the congress again submitted the bill.
“I feel that our moment has finally come, and we get involved in all these extremely important rescue works that are being done,” she said.
Earlier, Congress instructed a working group of stillborn, which Nichd was formed in 2022, and heard directly from the families of the dead. The Working Group has released Federal report Calling the speed of a stillborn country “unacceptable high”. US lag behind other wealthy countries When the speed is reduced.
Dr. Bob Silver, a leading expert on the stillborn at Utah, spent decades working on the prevention of stillborn. He is the co -director of the Ututa State University’s perfection center, which focuses on both prevention and merciful assistance after loss, and will lead the efforts of the consortium in the state.
“There is no doubt that Propublica’s reporting was closely related to this,” Silver said. “You can not always draw a straight line between these things. But in this case you can draw a very straight line.”
While some studies, including the NIH placenta project, indirectly contributed to the study of the dead, consortium is the first initiative, characteristic of the stillborn, after a joint joint network more than a decade ago. Both silver, and Dr. Um Reddie, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Colombian University, worked together in the research network and will again be in the consortium.
“We need to be able to get our rates to similar high income countries,” Reddy said. “This initiative is truly looking at the reduction in the speed of stillborn and look at their prevention, so important, and it’s really time.”
Dr. Karen Hibins, Associate Professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University, just graduated from the morning clinic when she received a letter a few days before the official message reported that she and OHSU were selected as part of a consortium.
Hibins, about whom he wrote about propublica For its commitment to more exposures after the stillborn son Sebastian, he could hardly believe it. She entered the grant federal site to confirm, then went beyond her office and hugged the Division Director.
“The old man is such a big problem for public health, and the fact that it has historically had no such attention,” Gibins said. “The fact that we have these investments of the centers that will take these different approaches to the fight against the stillborn and prevent the stillborn, as well as to provide better help to families who feel stillborn, it is hope that I think we all need.”
Hibins and her team specialize in studying the role of chronic stress, nutrition and heart health.
NIH has distributed the first year of financing, about $ 7.3 million, which includes $ 750,000 provided by the Ministry of Health and Human Services. Despite cuts in nihOfficials said they were optimistic that they would be able to finance the project for the other four years.
“The reason we do is that a deadborn affect 1 of 160 supplies to the United States a year, and this is really traumatic for families and is not talking about it,” Chernich said. “We are in a great place to really try to resolve this preventive tragedy.”
