The 1904 Midwives Act enacted the training and registration of midwives in New Zealand and their supervision and regulation by the Health Department. This was followed by the establishment of seven state-owned maternity hospitals named after
St Helens in Lancashire, England the birthplace of the Prime Minister
Richard Seddon. There were St Helens Hospitals in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne, Invercargill, Wanganui and Wellington. Their purpose was to train midwives and provide maternity care for the wives of working men. The hospitals were run by midwives with no resident doctors and the medical superintendent did not live on site.
Grace Neill was the Assistant Inspector of Hospitals for the Department of Health and oversaw the establishment of the hospitals in Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin.
Hester Maclean took over as Assistant Inspector from Neill in 1906 and continued to establish more hospitals in Christchurch, Gisborne, Wanganui and Invercargill. The first St Helens opened in Wellington in 1905 and the last was in Wanganui in 1921. However some St Helens continued to be run by midwives and the Department of Health until the 1960s when control moved to the Hospital Boards.
Wellington Grace Neill, who was Assistant Inspector of Hospital and committed to improving maternity services and health care for mothers and babies, set up the first St Helens in 1905. Neill found premises in Rintoul St, Newtown, equipped the building and hired a matron and sub-matron in the space of three weeks; the hospital opened on 29 May 1905. The hospital, which was designed by the Public Works Department, opened on 2 July 1912 and could accommodate 30 patients. A new maternity hospital building was built at Wellington Hospital in 1965, and control of St Helens transferred to the Wellington Hospital Board in 1966. Twelve years later it was decided that St Helens would close and its services were moved to Wellington Women's Hospital. The St Helens building remained empty for eleven years and was finally sold to private developers for conversion to apartments.
Dunedin The Dunedin St Helens opened on 30 September 1905 at 9 Regent Rd, Dunedin. It closed in January 1938 when the Queen Mary Maternity Hospital opened. From 1905 the
University of Otago medical school, led by Dr F.C. Batchelor, lobbied for medical students to use St Helens for their obstetrical training. This was resisted by Seddon as priority was to be given to training midwives and he did not believe married women should be attended by medical students. By 1919 there were insufficient cases for the medical students at the Batchelor Hospital. The architects Newman, Smith and Associates won the design competition and in 1968 the hospital moved to the new four storey building in Linwood Avenue,
Mt Albert. The hospital closed on 12 June 1990. The two storey building, with 16 beds, was not suitable and plans for a new building were shelved when
war broke out in 1914. It closed in 1935 after the establishment of a maternity annex at Cook Hospital.
Invercargill In February 1917 the government announced its intention to purchase and refurbish a property in Nelson St, Georgetown, Invercargill for a St Helens. The hospital, which was partially furnished by money from the people of Invercargill, was opened later that year and carried out some district work. It closed in 1952. == Midwives and doctors ==