The British Hospital for Mothers and Babies (1905–1984) was a maternity hospital in south London.

History

The Home for Mothers and Babies and Training School for District Midwives opened in May 1905, with the stated objectives of professionalising midwifery. The people behind it were Charles Escreet, an Anglican priest;

Alice Gregory Alice Sophia Gregory (22 November 1867 – 8 November 1946) was a British midwife who founded the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies to create professional training for midwives. Life Gregory was born in Lambeth in 1867. Her parents were Cha ...

, midwife; Leila Parnell and Maud Cashmere.June Hannam, ‘Gregory, Alice Sophia (1867–1946)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 29 April 2017
/ref> Its first location was in Wood Street, Woolwich, London. The facility opened with six beds but soon expanded to twelve, and in 1915 amalgamated with the

British Lying-In Hospital The British Lying-In Hospital was a maternity hospital established in London in 1749, the second such foundation in the capital. Background The impetus for the creation of a dedicated maternity hospital was dissatisfaction on the part of the gov ...

, Holborn, central London. (" Lying-in" is a term for childbirth, even then old-fashioned and now archaic, referring to the long

bedrest Bed rest, also referred to as the rest-cure, is a medical treatment in which a person lies in bed for most of the time to try to cure an illness. Bed rest refers to voluntarily lying in bed as a treatment and not being confined to bed because of ...

prescribed for new mothers in their

postpartum confinement Postpartum confinement is a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the seclusion or special treatment lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one mon ...

.) In 1919 the hospital was given an award from King Edward's Hospital Fund of £1,500 toward building an amalgamated hospital. In 1922, the hospital's new buildings in Samuel Street, Woolwich were officially opened by Queen Mary. During World War II the hospital was damaged in a bombing raid. Alice Gregory was still working at the hospital and she arranged for a new wing, which was opened by the Princess Royal in 1944. In addition, an evacuation hospital was set up in

Brenchley Brenchley is a village in the civil parish of Brenchley and Matfield, in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. All Saints Church is located in the village, and is a Grade I listed building. History The name is historically derived fro ...

, Kent, in a private house called Moatlands, purchased in 1944 for this purpose. In 1948 the Hospital came under the jurisdiction of the National Health Service and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Woolwich Group Hospital Management Committee. In 1953 Moatlands was vacated and the hospital's beds were transferred to Saint Nicholas Hospital,

Plumstead Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich. History Until 1965, Plumstead was in the historic counties of England, historic county of Kent and the detail of mu ...

. That hospital was closed in 1984.

Notes

References

* *{{cite web , url = http://www.hospitalsdatabase.lshtm.ac.uk/hospital.php?hospno=10 , title = British Hospital for Mothers and Babies (British Lying-In) , publisher = Voluntary Hospitals Database , accessdate = March 6, 2010 Defunct hospitals in London Hospital buildings completed in 1922 Maternity hospitals in the United Kingdom Former buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Voluntary hospitals Woolwich