Rotten Row Reborn

Rottenrow maternity hospital has made Glasgow synonymous worldwide with major developments in obstetrics; Murdoch Cameron's pioneering work in caesarean sections, Munro Kerr's research into maternal mortality, and Ian Donald's development of ultrasound scanning, and it also became internationally renowned as a leading training centre in midwifery.

Initially founded in 1834, when the Glasgow Lying-In Hospital was established by men including James Anderson, of the Glasgow Union Bank and nephew of Professor John Anderson, who had bequeathed his estate to establish Anderson's College, now Strathclyde University the university latterly encompassing the hospital building. The first patient was the aptly named Mrs Virtue. The rent of and all of the running costs were raised by public donation.

What made this hospital unusual in those days was a commitment to caring, for married women, but also for the destitute. Respectable prospective benefactors were unwilling to support an institution viewed as encouraging immorality by delivering the babies of unmarried women. But the founders of the Glasgow Lying-In Hospital argued that the preservation of human life was more important. Many patients were deserted wives. Some arrived already in labour, carried in off the streets, while others were brought in by police officers so appalled at squalor the women had to endure. There were frequent outbreaks of infection at the hospital, so that sometimes it had to be closed, but even so it delivered 53 babies in its first 10 months, all but two of whom survived which was testament to the skill and dedication of the medical staff

The move to Rottenrow, the street which gave the hospital its everyday name, came in 1860. That same year, physicians at Rottenrow took the first steps towards making caesarean sections safe when complications ruled out a traditional delivery. Until then, it was rare for mother and baby to survive a caesarean. Doctors were growing more ambitious, so when a 27-year-old woman was admitted whose deformed pelvis had an opening of just an inch-and-a-half, Dr Murdoch Cameron decided to operate. This was the first known successful caesarean in Glasgow. At the beginning of the 1880s there were some 260 admissions annually, but a decade later this had risen to more than 450.. Funding was a constant problem until 1948 when the hospital was welcomed into the NHS fold.

Back in 1948 mothers were expected to stay in hospital at least a week. After a forceps delivery the expected stay was a fortnight, and after a caesarean it was three weeks. Patients recived exceptional care; Professor Donald, who developed sonar for monitoring, always said every patient must be treated like a duchess.

Many practices have come and gone as a consequence of changes of opinion. In the 1940s all the babies were trundled away at night so that their mothers could get a good night's sleep. By the early 1980s bonding was the thing and the babies were left with the mothers, to the dismay of many.

My mum was a midwife as you may recall and I remember her talking about walking in the main entrance to sit her finals, it is ironic over 45 years later I would sit in the garden that now occupies the hospital site on the morning of my finals.

Today's shot is of that entrance, listed and retained the only memory of this pioneering place; a memory too for my mum and for all the midwives who qualified after sitting their exams here, I hope history repeats for our family and that my results too echo hers although I could never be the person she has been, a little lady that did good by stealth through her 40 year nursing career I don't say it often enough but I am very very proud of her...

I shot George Wylie's nappy pin here the morning of my exam my entry of the 7th May

Enjoy, best in large I think