[1] She completed her graduate studies in psychology at the University of Michigan, earning a master's degree in 1973 and a PhD in 1975.
[1] From 1972 to 1992, Birch was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where she headed the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.
[5] Her research program is credited for its influence on policy and position statements from scientific and professional bodies, such as the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program.
[5][6] One line of Birch's research examined children's food-related neophobia, the fear or dislike of novel items.
[9][10][11] Birch co-led a project evaluating an intervention designed to teach first-time parents effective ways to respond to their infants' needs, aside from feeding.