Charlotte Douglas

Charlotte Douglas OBE FRCOG (29 December 1894 – 27 August 1979) was a Scottish obstetrician and gynaecologist. She was senior medical officer for Scotland in the 1920s and 30s and a campaigner for the progressive improvement of maternity services in Scotland. She was co-author of the landmark Report on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in Scotland, the recommendations of which led to the Maternity Services Scotland (1937) Act.

Report on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in Scotland In the 1920s and 1930s, there was concern regarding the high and rising maternal mortality rates, and Douglas made a significant contribution to their reduction. As a Medical Officer, she monitored maternity services and child welfare in Scotland, making reports to the Chief Medical Officer, which contributed to an improvement in maternity services and provision. In 1935, she and her colleague Dr Peter L. McKinlay published the Report on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in Scotland, a comprehensive investigation into maternal death in Scotland.

Affiliations Douglas was a member of both the Lothian Division of the British Medical Association and the Medical Women's Federation, and a Fellow of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society. She was president of the Lothian Branch of the Royal College of Midwives and chair and vice-chair of the Scottish Council for Single Parents.

Awards and honours Douglas received an OBE for her services to the medical profession in 1962.

Personal life Outside her professional work, Douglas was a keen sportswoman with an interest in ice-skating, skiing and golf. She was an international ice-skating judge and ran an ice-skating club in Edinburgh.

Douglas died on 27 August 1979 in Perth, Scotland.