Nurses and midwives played an important role in gathering information about NCDS study members at birth. (Photo by Joseph McKeown/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
On a spring evening in 1955, Britain’s top medical minds gathered to confront a national crisis: how can we give babies the best start in life? Two researchers pitched a bold idea that paved the way for a national birth study.
More than 18 months after the first committee meeting to discuss the possibility of a new birth cohort study, momentum for the study was gathering behind the scenes.
In March 1958, nearly three years after the idea was put forward, the study is launched.
