Maternity Care in Hamilton
By Jeni Palmer (reproduced here by permission)
First published in the NZSG magazine May/June 2008 p.211
When I had my babies I wondered what it would have been like for my great-grandmothers when they had children. I decided to try to find out about what the experience of Hamilton women may have been like in the early days of European settlement.
Hamilton became settled by Europeans as a military outpost in 1864. The first to arrive were the soldiers of the 4th Regiment of Waikato Militia, in August 1864. Several months later their wives and children moved from Onehunga where they had been living in crowded conditions in barracks and tents into Hamilton. Once again they resided in tents until cottages could be erected. The first births would have occurred in these basic dwellings, probably with a midwife in attendance. Patrick Crosby, the son of John and Maria Crosby, was reputed to be one of the first European babies born in Hamilton.[1] Doctors may have assisted if there were complications with a birth. There were three doctors attached to the militia regiment initially but within a few years they had been deleted from the military payroll.[2] The midwives are unlikely to have had any formal training other than having had their own children though some may have received nursing training in British hospitals. Large families were common, providing the women with much experience.
In 1878 Hamilton’s population was 1,243, a level which it stayed around for the next twenty odd years.[3] By June 1887 Hamilton had a hospital staffed by a doctor and nurses, but this was not the place for delivering babies.[4] As Alice Chitty (nee de Vere Hunt) commented when recalling her life “Confinements always took place in the home. My first child was born on my twenty first birthday”[5] Birth notices of the period show most births occurring at the women’s residence. Some women went to the midwife’s home to have their babies. Ellen Callaghan did this for the birth of her second child Michael who was born at the home of Mrs Margaret Foulsham in 1880.[6] A number of women travelled to Auckland for closer medical attention. Mrs Frank Maclean of Parnell was advertising her services as a ladies’ nurse in the Waikato Times in 1893. She was “prepared to receive ladies from the country”.[7] Mrs Hannorah Lees, mother of nine, was delivering babies at her home in Hamilton during the late 1870s.[8] Midwives may not have charged for their services but may have been paid with some produce or such like.[9] Many of these women helped in times of sickness or injury, not just with childbirth.
Transport was a big issue in receiving prompt maternity care. Roads were fairly rugged during the pioneering years. Businessman Isaac Coates recorded in his memoirs an incident during the 1880s when his wife went into labour at their Ruakura farm. He was sent to fetch the midwife. It took him an hour to catch the buggy horse and hitch it up. Coates then drove to William A Graham’s house in Hamilton, only to be told that the midwife had been sent for by Mr Cochrane living near Tamahere. When Coates reached the Cochrane household he learnt that the midwife was there but she could not leave so he “had to return home without her, in fear and trembling for my poor wife”.[10] I wonder whether Coates would have had to assist his wife with the birth of the baby himself.
The death of a mother or infant during childbirth occurred frequently during the nineteenth century. In 1876 the rate of infant mortality for New Zealand males was 159.2 per 1000. The numbers do little to reflect the real people who were affected. Margaret Fitzgerald died at Whatawhata of puerperal fever five days after giving birth to her son Martin in 1885. Baby Martin died not long afterwards and four children were left motherless.[11] By 1901 the rate had dropped to 108.0 per 1000 and by 1931 was at 50.8 per 1000.[12]
State Registration of nurses was introduced in New Zealand in 1901 and for midwives in 1904. To become qualified a woman had to either hold a Certificate of Training in midwifery or have satisfied the Registrar that they had been in bona fide practice for at least three years and that she bore a good character. Mrs Mary Mallett was a midwife who resided in King Street, Frankton in 1910 who registered under the second method.[13]
Although I could find little written evidence I am sure that Hamilton women would have received help from their female kin during and after the birth. A woman’s mother and sisters would have been the first port of call, followed by neighbours and extended family. They provided help with the delivery, cared for other children and ran the household for days or weeks after the birth.[14]
The first private maternity home in Hamilton was opened by Dr Andrew Seymour Brewis before the First World War. It was named Opoia and located on River Road.[15] Hiwa Maternity Hospital, on the corner of Dawson and Grey Streets, opened several years later in 1919.[16] The home was run by Mrs Wilhelmina Olsen during the 1930s.
By the 1920s most births in Hamilton were happening at small maternity homes and home births had become unusual.[17] Garthowen Home in Norton Rd, Frankton, was operating from about 1922. It was known to locals as “the baby factory”.[18]
In 1924 Braemar Hospital, on Tainui St, Frankton became licensed for midwifery cases followed by Tirohia home in Hill St, opened in 1926.[19] Cassell and Linleigh were other private maternity homes and there were probably more too.
In 1931 the maternity ward at Waikato Hospital opened. It was named Campbell Johnstone Ward after the late chairman of the board. The first patient was admitted on 28 January 1931 and the baby was presented with a silver mug to highlight the occasion. In the first year nearly 300 babies were born there. In order to ease the pressure on admissions the board decided that Campbell Johnstone Ward should only be available when the family income was $6 a week or less. Other patients were expected to use one of the private maternity hospitals.[20]
Nurse Gibson was running Garthowen in 1939. When it closed in 1966 it was the last surviving private maternity home in Hamilton. It had seven beds at the time and 2730 babies had been born there.[21]
How did the women feel about the care that they received? They often returned to the maternity homes where they had previously delivered their babies which implied that they were happy with the care. They also commented on enjoying their own rooms and having liberal visiting hours for husbands at private hospitals.[22]
In the nineteenth century there was little provision for single mothers. They faced difficult social and financial situations. The Waikato Times records “a girl named Sarah Johnson, a servant at the Masonic Hotel Cambridge, had been confined during the night and had made away with her child”.[23] Sarah died a short time later from complications of childbirth.
The pattern of maternity care in Hamilton reflects many New Zealand communities. When European settlement began births occurred at home with a lay midwife and family members in attendance. With the training and registration of midwives the standard of care improved and death rates dropped. From the early 1900s small maternity homes became the most common place for births to occur. The opening of a public maternity ward at Waikato Hospital heralded a more medicalised approach to birth.
[1] Hamilton Public Library Oral History Programme, From Rural Outskirts to University Suburb: Abstracted Interviews from the Hillcrest Oral History Project (Hamilton: 1997), p.4., also 1865 New Zealand Birth Indexes, Patrick Cornelius Crosby, folio 125, Cambridge.
[2] Rex E Wright-St Clair, ‘Doctors in Hamilton in the Nineteenth Century’ in Auckland Waikato Historical Journal, Oct 2004, No 84, p. 26.
[3] P J Gibbons, Astride the River: A History of Hamilton (Christchurch: Hamilton City Council, 1977), p. 344.
[4] Gibbons, p. 97.
[5] Alicia Wilhemina Chitty, ‘High Ideals and Fortitude’ in The Lives of Pioneer Women in New Zealand: From their Letters, Diaries and Reminiscences, selected by Sarah Ell (Auckland: Bush Press, 1993), p. 71, and Waikato Times, 27 November 1879, p. 2.
[6] Waikato Times, 2 September 1880, p. 2.
[7] Waikato Times, 8 July 1893, p. 3.
[8] Waikato Times birth notices 1877 to 1881
[9] Isaac Coates, On Record: Being the Reminiscences of Isaac Coates 1840-1932 (Hamilton: Paul’s Book Arcade, 1962), p. 111.
[10] Coates, p. 108.
[11] New Zealand death certificate Margaret Fitzgerald, nee Power 1885 folio 108.
[12] A History of Survival, Department of Statistics, www.Stats.govt.nz
[13] New Zealand Gazette, 1910, p. 1178
[14] Caroline Daley, Girls & Women, Men & Boys: Gender in Taradale (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1999), p. 14-20.
[15] Waikato Times, 24 Aug 1964, p. 85.
[16] Waikato Times, 24 Aug 1964, p. 84.
[17] Hamilton Public Library Oral History Programme, That’s When Life Really Started to Live: Abstracts from an Oral History Project on Youth Culture 1930-1960 (Hamilton: Hamilton Public Library, 1995), Interview with Graham Quick.
[18] Hamilton Press, 16 October 2002.
[19] Waikato Times, 24 Aug 1964, p. 85.
[20] R E Wright-St Clair, From Cottage to Regional Base Hospital: Waikato Hospital 1887-1987 (Hamilton: Waikato Hospital Board, 1987), p. 56.
[21] Waikato Times, 9 Feb 1966, p. 8.
[22] Waikato Times, 9 Feb 1966, p. 8.
[23] Waikato Times, Thur 27 Jul 1882, p.2.