Sir Dugald Baird was a Scottish medical doctor.

He graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1922. His early experiences attending births in the Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 slums and in the city's Royal Maternity Hospital

Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital

Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, was founded as the Glasgow Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary in 1834 in Greyfriars Wynd. It moved to St Andrews Square in 1841 then to Rottenrow in 1860...

 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

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is a professional association based in the UK. Its members, including people with and without medical degrees, work in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, that is, pregnancy, childbirth, and female sexual and reproductive health...

 in 1935. It is also believed that he was a member of the Eugenics

Eugenics

Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...

 society.

He moved to Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 in 1937 as Regius Professor

Regius Professor

Regius Professorships are "royal" professorships at the ancient universities of the United Kingdom and Ireland - namely Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin. Each of the chairs was created by a monarch, and each appointment, save those at Dublin, is approved by the...

 of Midwifery

Midwifery

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....

 at the University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...

. 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

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

, sterilisation, induced abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

, and cervical screening

Screening (medicine)

Screening, in medicine, is a strategy used in a population to detect a disease in individuals without signs or symptoms of that disease. Unlike what generally happens in medicine, screening tests are performed on persons without any clinical sign of disease....

. With his wife Lady Matilda Deans Baird, also a physician, Sir Dugald also established the first free family planning clinic

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

 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

Freedom of the City

Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...

 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

Aberdeen Maternity Hospital

Aberdeen Maternity Hospital or AMH is a specialist maternity hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland. The buildings date from the late 1940s but have been updated and modernised since. It is part of the Aberdeen Joint Hospitals Scheme, envisaged by Professor Matthew Hay in the early 20th century. Between...

 is named in his honour.

Sir Dugald and Lady Baird had four children, one of which, D. Euan Baird, retired as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Schlumberger Ltd

Schlumberger

Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger employs over 110,000 people of more than 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries...

. in 2003, after a decades-long career with them. Another son, D.T. Baird, was instrumental in gaining approval for the use of RU-486 in the UK as an emergency contraceptive or 'morning after pill'.