Maternal & Newborn Atlas
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NICHD Neonatal Research Network

A US network of neonatal intensive care units that studies newborn care, especially for extremely preterm and very low birth weight babies. It was formed in 1986 and runs both observational studies and trials. Its registry of extremely preterm births at 26 centres from 1993 to 2012 shows survival and care changing over twenty years, while bronchopulmonary dysplasia rose between 2009 and 2012 in babies born at 26 to 27 weeks.

  • Organization
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

The network's own page says it was formed in 1986 through the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch of the institute that supports it, is a collaborative network of neonatal intensive care units across the United States and comprises 15 clinical centers and a data coordinating center (page as fetched on 2026-10-15; the trends paper counts 26 network centers over 1993 to 2012). The registry lists the network as lead sponsor of SUPPORT.

Roles

  • Institution

Claims and evidence

Context Extremely preterm infants at 26 Neonatal Research Network centres, 1993 to 2012

Recipient
Newborn
Population
A prospective registry of 34,636 infants born at 22 to 28 weeks of gestation with birth weight of 401 to 1500 g at 26 network centres between 1993 and 2012. Major morbidities were reported for infants who survived more than 12 hours.
Care setting
Academic neonatal intensive care centres of the Neonatal Research Network in the United States (the abstract's conclusion says US academic centers)
Geography
United States
Life stage
Extremely preterm infants, newborn period
Gestational age
22 weeks 0 days (154 days) to 28 weeks 6 days (202 days), measured at birth
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Care practices, major morbidities (severe necrotizing enterocolitis, infection, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe intracranial haemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia and severe retinopathy of prematurity) and survival, by birth year.
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; exclusion criteria not stated
Included
  • Infants born at 22 to 28 weeks' gestation with birth weight of 401 to 1500 g at 26 network centres, 1993 to 2012
Excluded
None stated

  • Description Observational Certainty not assessed

    A prospective registry of 34,636 infants born at 22 to 28 weeks of gestation at 26 Neonatal Research Network centres between 1993 and 2012 reports these changes. Antenatal corticosteroid use rose from 24% (348 of 1431 infants) to 87% (1674 of 1919), and caesarean delivery from 44% to 64%. Delivery room intubation fell from 80% to 65%, and CPAP without ventilation rose from 7% in 2002 to 11% in 2012. Survival rose between 2009 and 2012 at 23 weeks (27% to 33%) and 24 weeks (63% to 65%), with no change at 22, 26 and 28 weeks and smaller relative increases at 25 and 27 weeks, and survival without major morbidity rose by about 2% a year at 25 to 28 weeks with no change at 22 to 24 weeks. Several morbidities declined, but bronchopulmonary dysplasia increased between 2009 and 2012 for infants at 26 to 27 weeks of gestation (at 26 weeks, 50% to 55%; P < .001).

    Applies to Newborn
    • A prospective registry of 34,636 infants born at 22 to 28 weeks of gestation with birth weight of 401 to 1500 g at 26 network centres between 1993 and 2012. Major morbidities were reported for infants who survived more than 12 hours.
    • Academic neonatal intensive care centres of the Neonatal Research Network in the United States (the abstract's conclusion says US academic centers)
    • United States
    • Extremely preterm infants, newborn period
    • Gestational age 22 weeks 0 days to 28 weeks 6 days, measured at birth
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Care practices, major morbidities (severe necrotizing enterocolitis, infection, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe intracranial haemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia and severe retinopathy of prematurity) and survival, by birth year.
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    Only the abstract was read. This is an observational registry at US academic centres: it describes trends over twenty years and cannot show which practice caused any change. The abstract reports adjusted relative risks for some survival changes, which are not repeated here. Morbidities are reported for infants who survived more than 12 hours.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (3)

    1. Supports Trends in Care Practices, Morbidity, and Mortality of Extremely Preterm Neonates, 1993-2012

      Publication · JAMA · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched. · Published 2015-09-08 · DOI: 10.1001/jama.2015.10244 · PMID: 26348753 · PMCID: PMC4787615

      Locator
      Abstract, RESULTS sentences 1 to 8 and CONCLUSIONS sentence 1
      How it applies
      Care practices, survival and bronchopulmonary dysplasia by year.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      e03b015cd6fd27a220a3defd351ea3b2f7b9ec0bd3be0ac2878c50bae8089035
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    2. Background Trends in Care Practices, Morbidity, and Mortality of Extremely Preterm Neonates, 1993-2012

      Publication · JAMA · Edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. The full text and the version of record were not fetched. · Published 2015-09-08 · DOI: 10.1001/jama.2015.10244 · PMID: 26348753 · PMCID: PMC4787615

      Locator
      Abstract, OBJECTIVE, DESIGN and MAIN OUTCOMES
      How it applies
      Registry, population and the morbidities counted.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      e03b015cd6fd27a220a3defd351ea3b2f7b9ec0bd3be0ac2878c50bae8089035
      Reuse basis
      PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.

    3. Background Neonatal Research Network (NRN) (NICHD)

      Webpage · Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development · Edition The page as fetched on 2026-10-14 (cluster F) and again on 2026-10-15 (cluster N, a second snapshot).

      Locator
      Overview, paragraph 1
      How it applies
      The network, from the NICHD page; public domain.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      d5936221c803568766358870c32220644d9fc28ae187eeb4474ef52cf62b83f1
      Reuse basis
      NICHD is part of the US National Institutes of Health, and works produced by the federal government are not subject to copyright in the United States (the NLM statement is in mf-medlineplus-usingcontent.html). The NICHD site's own copyright policy was not read. The page bytes are not committed; short quotations only.

Record details

Record id
maternal:nichd-nrn
Content hash
fbf7c0917a78365f90f1a5da47c086c65cc8ab567a8244bbba911e1f01f23325