Most births occurred at home although there were a few maternity homes/hospitals.These were known as lying-in hospitals and generally were benevolent institutions run by charities or public subscriptions. This often meant that there were some requirements for entry such as being of good character, not being intemperate in habit (ie not drinking alcohol) and not being a "fallen women" by being pregnant without being married.
The survival of these records is often very patchy I was very interested to come across online the records of the Melbourne Lying-in Hospital. The first book has been digitised and while other books have been kept in their archive they fall within the 100 year privacy closure period. Hopefully at a future stage they too will be digitised.
Online are images of each page of the book. These are not indexed at this site but some wonderful volunteers have indexed the online book and have made this index available on another site which is great if you are searching for a specific name.
So you can check out the index first then go to the surname of interest or you can just browse and get and idea of the social history and medical history of the time.
If you want a printed copy of the image then definitely selecting landscape paper orientation gives better results as the information is written across the two pages of the book.
The below information of what is contained in the book has been taken direct from the website:
This book recorded the patient’s name, age, marital
condition and parity (number of previous deliveries); date of admission and
discharge.
It then recorded details of the labour and delivery: the time in labour (which generally meant the time in second stage or heavy labour), the presentation (head, breech, transverse) and whether the baby was born alive or was stillborn. If the baby was alive, its sex, weight and length were noted, as were any interventions such as the use of forceps, or any manipulation by the accoucheur of its presentation. Complications such as prolonged (‘tedious’) labour, haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia or obstructed labour would be noted, along with occasional social comments such as ‘a notorious thief’ or ‘brought in by police’.
It then recorded details of the labour and delivery: the time in labour (which generally meant the time in second stage or heavy labour), the presentation (head, breech, transverse) and whether the baby was born alive or was stillborn. If the baby was alive, its sex, weight and length were noted, as were any interventions such as the use of forceps, or any manipulation by the accoucheur of its presentation. Complications such as prolonged (‘tedious’) labour, haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia or obstructed labour would be noted, along with occasional social comments such as ‘a notorious thief’ or ‘brought in by police’.
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| Page 89 |
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| Enlargement image 89 |
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| Image 89 left hand side |
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| Image 89 Right Hand side |
A great resource for people interested in health, midwifery or just maybe you might be lucky enough to find an ancestor mentioned.
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