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Description

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The Royal Womens Hospital is Australias largest specialist hospital dedicated to improving the health of all women and newborn babies

Each year we care for more than 200000 women from 165 countries who speak 60 different languages and follow 42 separate religious faiths

The Womens is committed to a holistic philosophy of health and provides comprehensive services ranging from health promotion to clinical expertise and leadership in maternity services gynaecology cancer services and specialist care of newborn babies

We are also a major teaching hospital and a medical research leader of world renown

For 150 years the Womens has led the advocacy and advancement of womens health care

Established in 1856 as The Melbourne Lyingin Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children our hospital began as a place where underprivileged women could give birth to their babies and receive medical attention and nursing

Today our innovative social model of care recognises factors such as housing income and stress affect womens ability to care
for themselves and their families

The Womens is a unique health service that has been shaped over time by womens voices We are an advocate for improvements in womens health and wellbeing

In developing our services we understand the importance of integrating the diverse everchanging needs priorities perspectives and experiences of our women

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History

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The Royal Womens Hospital Australias first public womens hospital was established in Melbourne in August 1856 and is among the oldest and most distinguished of its kind in the world today

Founded as a place where underprivileged women could give birth and receive proper medical and nursing attention the original title of the hospital was the Melbourne LyingIn Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children

Our hospital is now fondly known as the Womens

The Melbourne LyingIn Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children opened its doors to the poorest and most needy women in 1856 less than two decades after the official foundation of Melbourne 1837

The Lyingin Hospital was the second hospital established in the bustling town the first was the Melbourne Hospital It was first located in a leased terrace house in Albert St Eastern Hill East Melbourne close to where the Victorian Parliament now stands

The hospitals establishment was achieved by a committee of women led by Mrs Frances Perry the wife of the then Anglican bishop of Melbourne and two doctors Dr Richard Tracy and Dr John Maund

Two years later the hospital moved to its current site in Carlton with financial support from private benefactors and a colonial government cashed up from goldfields taxes

In 1884 its title was simplified to the Womens Hospital and the Royal title was conferred on the hospital by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 6 September 1954

The Womens was initially a charity hospital serving the needs of women unable to afford private medical care Melbourne was marvellous for some but the allure of gold had left many women without support or the means to care for themselves or their
children

Most sought assistance when giving birth or recovering from its aftereffects or when plagued by troublesome or lifethreatening gynaecological conditions later in life

Demand for the hospitals services was strong and sustained and in its first decade nearly 3000 women were admitted and many more treated as outpatients

By the second half of the twentieth century more women gave birth in the Womens maternity section than in any other hospital in the Commonwealth By the end of the twentieth century the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit was among the largest and most sophisticated of any in the nation

From the outset the Womens aimed to lead in setting standards for medical and nursing care becoming the first Australian hospital to train nurses in the late 1850s and to teach obstetrics and gynaecology to medical students 1865

The hospital maintained close relations with the University of Melbourne medical school established 1862 and was the first hospital in Melbourne to house a clinical professor Robert Marshall Allen Professor of Obstetrics 192946

The Womens was also the first place in Australia where a specialist Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology could be undertaken from 1932

Throughout its 150 year history the Womens has provided specialist care for women and newborn babies sometimes based on its own groundbreaking research

Today the hospital is renowned for its expertise in areas such as antenatal care maternal and neonatal infection control gynaecological disease diagnosis and treatment family planning newborn intensive care and infertility management

In all these fields the Womens seeks to enhance the wellbeing of individuals and families while at the same time responding to changing community needs and priorities

On 6 October 2003 the Victorian Premier and the Minister for Health announced that a new Womens hospital would be built in Parkville Construction for the new 250 million Royal Womens Hospital began in 2005 heralding a new era in healthcare for Victorian women