The National Ins'titute of Child Health and Human Development often has its long name shortened to the "Child Health Institute".
Calling us just the Child Health Institute neglects the developmental component of what we do. We were originally set up as the first of the noncategorical institutes at the National Institutes of Health. We do not focus on a particular organ or a particular disease, nor just on child health, but on human development across the spectrum, in the belief that this will contribute to the knowledge that isi important for addressing a number of conditions. These include problems with pregnancy and with reproduction, birth defects, behavioral and intellectual development, mental retardation, growth, chronic disease, rehabilitation (a form of devel.opment), and normal processes of aging that go across the life span. So the institute, from its earliest days, has taken a developmental approach to most of its activities.
Our mission has been to try to assure the birth of healthy babies, the birth of wanted babies, and the opportunity for each child that is born to reach adulthood free of disease and disability and able to achieve their full developmental potential. Our areas of focus include Ipregnancy and the whole process of human reproduction, including infertility, pregnancy loss, and the normal process of birth and delivery. Birth defects are a major component of the program and, in fact, the sponsoring branch of this conference is the branch that focuses most clearly on the problem of birth defects within the institute. The NICHD also has a normal growth and development program, including in utero growth and development, and a major program in reproductive biology, including pregnancy loss.