Waterford
Maternity Hospital Records
Waterford Maternity and Lying-In Hospital was founded in 1834
to provide free maternity and post-natal care for the poor of
Waterford City, both in hospital and through home visits. The
hospital was under the care of a committee of 12 women and very
much relied on voluntary donations for most of its career. The
original premises was in Barrack Street, but the hospital soon
moved to two interlinked houses on Parliament Street. Over time
these premises became inadequate for hospital needs. A new hospital
at Airmount was opened in 1951 and this was run by the Medical
Missionaries of Mary from 1952. The hospital was finally closed
in 1995.
When the Medical Missionaries left Waterford they took some of the older records for the Maternity Hospital with them to their Headquarters in Drogheda. When the Order appointed an Archivist and began sorting their records, this material was rediscovered. This material has now been returned to Waterford City Archives thanks to the generosity of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
The collection consists of 15 volumes from 1833 to the 1970s. Unfortunately it is not a full collection, but the contents of the earlier volumes give very vivid details of the poor conditions in which women lived, gave birth and frequently died in the nineteenth century. The collection also includes other historical papers, relating in particular to the building and management of the new hospital.