Priscilla White (1900–1989)

Priscilla White studied
the treatment of diabetes in mothers, pregnant women, and
children during the twentieth century in the US. White began
working with children with Type 1 diabetes in 1924 at Elliott
Proctor Joslin’s practice in Boston, Massachusetts. Type 1
diabetes is an incurable disease where the pancreas produces
little to no insulin. Insulin is a hormone that allows the body
to use sugar from food for energy and store sugars for future
use. Joslin and White co-authored many publications on children
and diabetes, in 1952, White helped Joslin found the Joslin
Clinic. White noted that many of the children with whom she
worked when they became mothers they passed the disease on to
their children. Her research focused on diabetic pregnant women
and female children with diabetes. White implemented the
technique of delivering infants of diabetic women early, which
increased the survival rate of diabetic women’s infants.