Dugald Baird

Sir Dugald Baird (1899-1986) graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1922.

His early experiences attending births in the Glasgow slums and in the city's Royal Maternity Hospital shaped his interest in the social and economic influences on the health of women, their babies, and across generations. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1935. It is also believed that he was a member of the Eugenics society.

He moved to Aberdeen in 1937 as Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Aberdeen. During the next three decades, his main interests were in the areas of clinical practice, service provision and health policy in reproductive health, perinatal and maternal mortality, social obstetrics, sterilisation, induced abortion, and cervical screening. With his wife Lady Baird, Sir Dugald also established the first free family planning clinic in Aberdeen.

In 1951 he set up the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Databank, which continues today to link all the obstetric and fertility-related events occurring to women from a defined population.

Sir Dugald formally retired in 1965, and the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen was conferred on him and Lady Baird for their contribution to medical science and health in the City and beyond.

The Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital is named in his honour.