Maternal and child health news, resources and funding for global health researchers

Fogarty has a strong commitment to improving the health of children, adults, families and communities throughout the world. Several Fogarty programs currently address issues related to maternal and child health, including vaccinations, trauma, birth defects, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), fetal alcohol syndrome and childhood nutrition.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) leads NIH research efforts in the fields of child health and development, including pregnancy and fertility. The NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) works in partnership across NIH to ensure that women's health research is part of the scientific framework at the NIH and throughout the scientific community.

Fogarty participated in the MAL-ED program to investigate linkages between malnutrition and intestinal infections and their effects on children in the developing world. Fogarty and NIH partners also support research to reduce household air pollution from elemental stoves for cooking or heating, which impacts women and children.

Fogarty Grants

View a full list of active and recent grant awards focusing on maternal and child healthresearch

Recent Maternal and Child Health News

• Longer breastfeeding linked to blood-pressure lowering effects of certain infant gut bacteria
  NHLBI News, March 4, 2025
• Glutathione peroxidase 3 is a potential biomarker for konzo, co-authored by Fogarty International Research Scientist Matthew Bramble
  Nature Communications, September 6, 2024
• When overweight and undernourished live under one roof
  Global Health Matters, July/August 2024
• Empowering women and children from Nepal to the Amazon
  Global Health Matters, July/August 2024
• Exploring the genomic traits of infant-associated microbiota members from a Zimbabwean cohort, co-authored by Fogarty trainee Danai Tavonga Zhou
  BMC Genomics, July 25, 2024
• Umbilical cord milking does not appear to increase risk of neurodevelopmental delay in non-vigorous infants
  NIH News, July 1, 2024

NIH News and Resources

• NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH): Global Health Research
  • Sex as a Biological Variable: A Primer
  • NIH SABV Policy Guidance
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): Office of Global Health (OGH)
  

Other US Government Resources

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID): maternal and child health
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): maternal and infant health
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): Maternal and Child Health Bureau

Other Online Resources

• Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), supported in part by the NIH: Harmonized international survey data on maternal, child and reproductive health
• Kaiser Family Foundation Fact Sheet: The U.S. Government and Global Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
• Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development
  USAID, the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, DFID and KOICA
• World Health Organization:
  • WHO on Maternal Health
  • Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents Health 2016-2030, published 2015
  • WHO report: Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air, published October 2018
• UNICEF Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
  • Maternal Health
  • Child Mortality 
• UNICEF annual State of the World's Children reports
  

Updated March 6, 2025