Medical Pioneer. She was a pediatrician and medical researcher who discovered the relationship between numerous maternal factors during pregnancy and the later health of infants. Raised in Victoria, her physician father opposed her career choice; nevertheless, after graduation from the University of British Columbia, she attended McGill University in Montreal, where she received her M.D. in 1941. Moving to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore a year later, she was a staff pediatrician, then ran the Baltimore Health Department division of child hygiene for six years. She returned to Johns Hopkins and initiated the Collaborative Perinatal Project in 1957. This study, which examined the results of 60,000 pregnancies over 20 years, is still yielding useful information. Hardy demonstrated that maternal rubella (German measles) can lead to birth defects, and showed that babies born to girls under 18 can have lower IQs and other problems, including hypertension. (Her research postulated that the ideal age for pregnancy is the late 20s). She also indicated a link between early smoking and later health status. In the 1970s she ran a pregnancy prevention project for the Baltimore schools which decreased teen pregnancy by 30%. Though she retired in 1981, Hardy continued to publish well into her 80s.
Medical Pioneer. She was a pediatrician and medical researcher who discovered the relationship between numerous maternal factors during pregnancy and the later health of infants. Raised in Victoria, her physician father opposed her career choice; nevertheless, after graduation from the University of British Columbia, she attended McGill University in Montreal, where she received her M.D. in 1941. Moving to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore a year later, she was a staff pediatrician, then ran the Baltimore Health Department division of child hygiene for six years. She returned to Johns Hopkins and initiated the Collaborative Perinatal Project in 1957. This study, which examined the results of 60,000 pregnancies over 20 years, is still yielding useful information. Hardy demonstrated that maternal rubella (German measles) can lead to birth defects, and showed that babies born to girls under 18 can have lower IQs and other problems, including hypertension. (Her research postulated that the ideal age for pregnancy is the late 20s). She also indicated a link between early smoking and later health status. In the 1970s she ran a pregnancy prevention project for the Baltimore schools which decreased teen pregnancy by 30%. Though she retired in 1981, Hardy continued to publish well into her 80s.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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