National Committee on Maternal Health

The Committee on Maternal Health was organized in New York City in 1923 by Robert L. Dickinson (1861-1950). After obtaining financial backing from several society women, Dickinson recruited physicians for the Committee to sponsor medical investigation of contraception, infertility, spontaneous abortion, and related issues. In 1930 "National" was added to its name, and the role of the Committee shifted to that of a clearing house for information on these issues; the Committee sponsored a series of monographs which were to serve as a handbook for doctors. The shift occurred because Dickinson was unsuccessful in obtaining sufficient data from hospitals for their research, and also failed to gain support from the medical profession for a clinical investigation through Margaret Sanger's Clinical Research Bureau. Dickinson, however, did associate himself with Sanger's Clinic in a private capacity after 1930, and was to serve as mediator through whom organized medicine made its peace with the birth control movement. Dickinson died in 1950. The Committee's office at the New York Academy of Medicine was closed in 1955, shortly before the resignation of the executive director. The Population Council was its successor organization; the data-gathering section remained in New York and the Council itself located in Princeton, N.J.

From the description of Records, 1923-1959. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 281430084

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