Peter M Dunn

..As a pioneer of full time paediatrics, as the first professor in this new discipline, and as inaugural president of the British Paediatric Association, Still has been called with justice the father of British paediatrics...

..Clinician, physiologist and teacher, Smith may be justly regarded as the father of modern neonatal medicine. He also appreciated the importance of prenatal medicine...

..Meanwhile, a paediatric perinatal pressure group, arising in 1976, became a multidisciplinary association of perinatal medicine in 1981. By 1983 the new discipline of perinatal medicine had become firmly established...

..The textbook on the care of children published by these two Dublin physicians in 1836 was for many years regarded as an authoritative work on this subject...

..Portal was the first doctor to give a good description of placenta praevia. His textbook contained interesting accounts of problem cases that he had encountered...

..The creation of antenatal departments and wards in maternity hospitals followed. He also established abdominal obstetric palpation on sound principles...

..The same year, 1784, he published a textbook which did much to establish paediatrics as an emerging discipline in its own right. The book contains several original descriptions of childhood diseases...

..Aristotle's studies encompassed the entire world of living things. Many of his descriptions and classifications remain sound today. Although not a physician, he exerted a profound influence on medicine for the next 2000 years...

..His wisdom and wit educated and amused successive generations of students and doctors...

..Williams was the founder of academic obstetrics in the United States and with his textbook was the recognised leader of this discipline in America during the first 30 years of the 20th century...

..In 1944, Helen Taussig in collaboration with Alfred Blalock initiated the first surgical treatment of cyanotic congenital malformations of the heart. She may be regarded as the founder of paediatric cardiology...

..By identifying rubella infection in early pregnancy as a cause of congenital malformations and disabilities, Gregg alerted the medical profession to the importance of the prenatal environment...

..Her name is eponymously linked with the facial characteristics of infants with bilateral renal agenesis...

..Meanwhile, a paediatric perinatal pressure group, arising in 1976, became a multidisciplinary association of perinatal medicine in 1981. By 1983 the new discipline of perinatal medicine had become firmly established...

..Doctor, teacher of anatomy, conversationalist, essayist, and poet, in 1843 Holmes combined his medical and literary skills in a masterly dissertation on the epidemiology and prevention of puerperal fever...

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..On behalf of Birmingham's Department of Public Health, Dr Crosse developed the Sorrento Premature Baby Unit in 1931 and pioneered the modern care of these small newborn infants in Britain...

..Edgar, a leading academic obstetrician/gynaecologist in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, explored a number of interesting aspects of pregnancy and childbirth in his 1903 textbook on obstetrics...

..Although his findings were hailed by some as comparable to Jenner's introduction of vaccination, for various reasons his ideas failed to gain general acceptance until after his death...

..However, his wish to solve all the problems of health and disease led him to speculate and draw mistaken conclusions which were widely believed until after the Renaissance...

..His creative intellect has been compared with that of Leonardo da Vinci. This brief article draws attention to two perinatal contributions made on placental respiration and management of the umbilical cord...

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..Its use in preventing and controlling postpartum haemorrhage has saved countless lives in the years since. As professor of obstetrics and gynaecology in Oxford, he achieved distinction for his repair of vesicovaginal fistulae...

..Often working behind the scenes, he helped to bring about many advances in hygiene and public health as well as developing a modern approach to the classification of disease and the collection and analysis of medical information data...

..However, as the outstanding British obstetrician between 1840 and 1870, he also pioneered many other advances in obstetrics...

..He pioneered many advances and encouraged a perinatal approach to childbirth that was further developed by his disciples, Budin and Pinard...

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..Louise Bourgeois was the first practicing midwife to write of her experience of childbirth and of women's problems. She did much to enhance the respect in which her craft was held. For 26 years she was midwife to the royal court...

..Later, as chief medical officer to the Board of Education (1907-1935) and to the Ministry of Health (1919-1935), he achieved many important and wide ranging improvements to the health of infants and children...

..As professor of clinical surgery in the university he was an admired and respected teacher. His writings covered most aspects of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics...

..He made many important scientific and operative contributions, prominent among which were his studies on the origin and management of congenital deformities...

..Catherina Schrader, a Dutch midwife practicing 300 years ago, left records of some 4000 deliveries, 95% of which were spontaneous without intervention. The corrected maternal mortality was 4.6/1000 and perinatal mortality 54/1000 births...

..Although internationally recognised as a most valuable instrument for rotation of the fetal head, for many years his instrument received little appreciation in his own country...

..Although best known for his forceps and external pelvimeter, probably his greatest contribution was his obstetric text and the teaching of obstetrics to a generation of midwives and young doctors...

..Her classification of diabetes in pregnancy was widely accepted. During her long career she pioneered a number of advances in this field and witnessed a remarkable fall in maternal and perinatal mortality...

..He was a founder member and later President of the British Paediatric Association, and later became Vice-President of the International Pediatric Congress and the President of the paediatric section of the Royal Society of Medicine...

..The developmental process requires close collaboration among all three groups (individuals, professional bodies and government) to improve both the quality and availability of perinatal services to a geographically defined region...