All neonatologists must be pioneers by definition, because we are now looking after infants who would not have survived before. Every year is a new experience as we have the pleasure of seeing more and more low birth weight infants survive, and we accept the challenge of reducing their continuing morbidities.
Modern neonatology begins in the 1940s. One of the reasons it began, I think, was post World War II construction, new facilities, and, alas, a tragedy—the emergence of the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States; we now call it retinopathy of prematurity. In the late 1940s, it was called retrolental fibroplasia and was the leading cause of blindness among children in the United States. Recognition, in the 1950s, that the cause was hyperoxia led to better monitoring of oxygen delivery and a near elimination of the problem among infants weighing >1800 g.
In 1940, there...
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