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Nancy Beaton Loudon (1926 to 2009) devoted her professional life to pioneering, and ensuring provision of, family planning and well woman services. As such she was a fore-runner in what is now the specialty of 'community gynaecology'.

Context: birth control in the latter half of the 20th century
In the 1950s many couples, and perhaps even more women, would have liked to delay and space their pregnancies. However at that time reliable contraception for women comprised only sterilisation (if the woman was sure she wished no more pregnancies), or diaphragms (also known as the cap). However, in the early 1960s the intrauterine device became available, and around the same time the first formulations of the oral contraceptive pill became available. See also contemporary methods of Birth Control.

Nevertheless, the 1960s and 1970s were challenging times for those working in birth control. There were many who were initially hostile to the new developments in service provision, and in particular the provision of contraception for unmarried women became a battleground.

Early life and education
Born Nancy Mann n 1926 into a farming community in the Black Isle in Scotland, Nancy showed her academic potential early by becoming Dux of Fortrose Academy in her final year of school.Nancy began her medical studies at the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh in 1944, during war-time. She was one of only a small number of students each year who obtained their medical degree 'with honours'.

Training and early career
Subsequently Nancy commenced specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, working under the supervision of Professor Robert Kellar. However, once she became engaged to be married to a fellow gynaecologist, Professor Kellar declared that there was no place for a married woman in obstetrics and she was forced to resign her post.

Nancy’s return to medical practice was a weekly session in the Edinburgh Mothers’ Welfare clinic, which was, despite what its name might suggest, a family planning clinic. This clinic, the first in Edinburgh, was run on a voluntary basis by two doctors, Maeve Marwick and Alexandra Lothian.

Initially, the clinic had spartan premises - an old shop, possessing a cold tap only, and with the waiting room furnished with wooden benches. However, in 1957 a bequest of £2000 allowed the purchase of premises in Dean Terrace, a Georgian town house carefully chosen for its secluded location. The clinic remained there for over 50 years, until it moved to Chalmers Community Clinic in Lauriston Place, at that point becoming a combined family planning, well woman and sexual and reproductive health clinic.

Birth control 'need', and word-of-mouth, meant local women flocked to the newly established clinic in Dean Terrace, and it quickly became a groundbreaking centre for the new methods of contraception that were becoming available (? link to Family planning para above) Nancy took over as Principal Medical Officer in 1972, and at that time the clinic operated under the auspices of the Family Planning Association (FPA), as Branch 50. The clinic was later subsumed into Lothian Health Board.

Nancy had a supportive team at the Dean Terrace clinic, and these were exciting times for family planning, the many battles notwithstanding. The clinic service expanded to offer well-woman screening, vasectomy, sexual problems clinics and place of work screening in local factories. Nancy was justifiably proud of establishing the Lothian Abortion Referral Service, which streamlined the management of women seeking abortion, cutting down unnecessary and distressing delays.

Research
Nancy also pursued academic medical interests, and held a lectureship in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Edinburgh. Nancy's involvement in research on contraception, in particular, steroid hormones, was facilitated by the establishment in Edinburgh of the MRC Reproductive Biology Research Unit. This was set up by the MRC the late 1970s, under the leadership of Professor Roger Short. Nancy's research work led to over 70 scientific publications. In 1985 she wrote a textbook, The Handbook of Family Planning ,which has continued as a popular text for doctors working in the field - the fifth edition, edited by Edinburgh colleagues, was published shortly before she died.

Leadership
She was chairperson of the UK National Association of Family Planning Doctors (years?) and held many other national medical roles. Nancy was not afraid to challenge the establishment when the needs of women were threatened. Her critical thinking and persuasive manner meant that she could cut through red tape and bureaucracy, to ensure a pragmatic solution to the benefit of families. In her time the medical specialty of Family Planning has become firmly established in the UK, now known as the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.

Esteem and awards
Nancy retired in 1988. Following retirement, she was awarded the William Y Darling Bequest by Edinburgh District Council for Good Citizenship, by a unanimous committee vote. Subsequently, she was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and her contribution to medicine was marked with an OBE in 1992.

Personal life
Nancy was supported throughout her professional life by her husband, Dr John Loudon, retired consultant obstetrician and gynaecologis. She had two sons and by 2009 had six grandchildren.