Stillbirth Working Group of Council | NICHD

NICHD formed the Stillbirth Working Group of Council, a subgroup of NICHD’s National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council, in response to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) request to lead a congressionally mandated task force to examine stillbirth in the United States, with a focus on the following issues:

  • Current barriers to collecting data on U.S. stillbirths
  • Communities at higher risk for stillbirth
  • Psychological impact and treatment for mothers following stillbirth
  • Known risk factors for stillbirth

The working group began holding meetings in October 2022 to discuss how to address these issues, and presented its recommendations to the NACHHD Council in January 2023.

The working group released its final report to HHS, Working to Address the Tragedy of Stillbirth (PDF 941 KB), on March 15, 2023. In July 2024, they released a follow-up implementation recommendations report (PDF 445 KB).

Meetings

Members

Wanda Barfield, M.D., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: wjb5@cdc.gov
Amanda Cohn, M.D.
Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: acohn@cdc.gov
Deborah Conway, M.D.
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Email: adamsb2@uthscsa.edu; conway@uthscsa.edu
Carla DeSisto, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: wup5@cdc.gov
Ada Dieke, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: vts5@cdc.gov
Donald Dudley, M.D.
University of Virginia    
Email: dd7ss@virginia.edu
Andrew Fullerton, M.P.P., Representative of the March of Dimes
March of Dimes
Email: afullerton@marchofdimes.org
Isabelle Horon, Dr.P.H.
Reproductive Statistics Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of Vital Statistics
Email: ibh3@cdc.gov
Lucky Jain, M.D., Co-Chair
Emory University
Email: ljain@emory.edu
Denise Jamieson, M.D., M.P.H.
Emory University
Email: djamieson@emory.edu
Stephanie Leonard, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Email: sleo@standford.edu; stephanie.leonard@stanford.edu
Jenna Nobles, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: jnobles@ssc.wisc.edu
Tina Pattara-Lau, M.D.
Office of Clinical and Preventive Services, Indian Health Service
Email: tina.pattara-lau@ihs.gov
Sonja Rasmussen, M.D., M.S.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Email: srasmus2@jhu.edu
Uma M. Reddy, M.D., M.P.H., Co-Chair; Representative for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Email: ur2137@columbia.edu
Jennita Reefhuis, Ph.D.
Birth Defects Monitoring and Research Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: nzr5@cdc.gov
Robert M. Silver, M.D., Representative for Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
University of Utah Health Sciences Center
Email: bob.silver@hsc.utah.edu
Catherine Vladutiu, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration
Email: cvladutiu@hrsa.gov
Maeve Wallace, Ph.D.
Tulane University School of Public Health
Email: mwallace@tulane.edu
Monica H. Wojcik, M.D.
Boston Children’s Hospital
Email: monica.wojcik@childrens.harvard.ed

More Information

  • At the January 2023 NACHHD Council meeting, council members discussed preliminary working group recommendations (presentation and discussion begins at 1:30:41 in the VideoCast recording).
  • NOT-HD-22-054: Request for Information: Developing Strategies to Strengthen Research on Stillbirth Prevention

Contacts

Monica Longo, M.D.
Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch
monica.longo@nih.gov