I also avoid using <br> for this type of formatting. I use a style for the first paragraph following a section break:
<p>stuff</p>
<p>and</p>
<p class="section">more</p>
<p>stuff</p>
with these styles:
p {margin-top: 0em}
.section {margin-top: 1em}
yields:
stuff
and
more
stuff