50 years of welcoming new lives

Since then approximately 20,000 babies have been born within the walls of the single-storey building in Field Road, Stroud and generations of families can justly claim to owe their very existence to the care and expertise of the staff.

Skip Walker has talked to dozens of mothers whose memories of having babies in Stroud are nothing but good.

ASK any mother what are the most memorable moments of her life and among her answers is certain to be the birth of her children.

Many fathers would say the same because there is nothing more special for parents than witnessing those first moments of the life of their children.

For women, of course, the process of giving birth is also indescribably painful but given a relaxed, comfortable and caring environment the pain is soon forgotten for the joy of bringing new life into the world.

Stroud Maternity Hospital has been providing the perfect environment for mothers and babies for the past 50 years, notching up an incredible 20,000 births since it first opened 50 years ago, on March 30, 1953.

Before Stroud Maternity Hospital opened, most mothers in the Stroud Valleys went to the Cotswold Maternity Home in Tetbury to have their babies, or, if they were likely to need specialist medical intervention, to the even more distant maternity unit in Cheltenham.

In those dim and distant days the luxury of a motor car was one few could afford so it was a long and slow journey for fathers and other members of the family to visit the mothers and their new-born babies in hospital.

In 1947 the Regional Board of the local health authority of the day took the decision to close the Tetbury maternity home and build a replacement in Stroud. These were the post-war "baby boom" years and babies were being born to mothers in the Stroud Valleys at a rate of close to 1,000 a year.

Bureaucratic red tape and other delays meant Stroud Maternity Hospital was not finally opened until just after the Tetbury facility had closed and for women who were due to give birth around then it was an anxious time.

Mrs Beryl Ireland, of Painswick, whose daughter Sheila was the 14th baby to be born in Stroud Maternity, on April 13, 1953, remembers the uncertainty clearly. "It was a toss up whether Stroud would be open in time for me to have my baby and if Tetbury closed in the meantime then I would have had to go to Cheltenham.

"But Stroud opened just in time and I was very well looked after in the lovely new hospital. It was a good thing for Stroud then and it is still a good thing for Stroud," said Mrs Ireland, who is now a great grandmother.

The first baby to be born in the new hospital was Elizabeth, daughter of Mrs Rose O'Callaghan, of Cromhall, near Wotton-under-Edge.

Elizabeth went on to have her own daughter, Leila, and Leila is due to produce her first baby, booked in at Stroud Maternity for the beginning of June.

The day after Elizabeth's birth, just past midnight on April 2, 1953, Jacqueline Hughes was the second baby to be born at Stroud Maternity. Her mother, Maureen, has since died but Jacqueline says she was told by her mother that the hospital was really new and clean but that her husband was not allowed to travel in the ambulance with her, it was against the regulations.

Mrs Phyllis Hogg, of Minchinhampton, whose baby Yvonne was the fourth baby to be born at Stroud, on Easter Sunday, says she was treated like royalty. "We were spoilt," she said. "It was wonderful. We had cream cakes in the morning with our drinks, but they said it wouldn't last for long, just until it filled up a bit more."

Dozens of other mothers who had their babies in Stroud during 1953 have contacted the Stroud News & Journal and they all remember the high standard of care and the pristine new surroundings.

Mrs Joan Rainey, of Bisley Old Road in Stroud, had her third child Susan, born on May 3, 1953, in Stroud Maternity. The other two had been born in Tetbury and Mrs Rainey was impressed by the new hospital. " All the facilities were brand-new. I was very happy there and very well looked after."

Mrs Olive Roseblade, of Cashes Green, is now 80 but her memories of having her son Dennis on May 5, 1953 are still crystal clear. "It was a wonderful hospital, very well run," she remembers. "I was in a ward with about 11 other women, although I was in a single ward during labour. I can't imagine anyone wanting to go anywhere else to have a baby. I hope they don't close it. It is so nice and so local."

Although all the mothers, without exception, speak fondly of the regime at Stroud Maternity when it first opened, they also remember the strict way in which it was run in those days.

"We were told we had to sleep on our tummies, although I don't know why," remembered Mr Kathleen Shellard, of Minchinhampton, whose twins born on November 6, 1953 were the second set of twins born in the hospital.

Mrs Pauline Kuc, of Minchinhampton, whose daughter Elaine was born on May 19, 1953, said all the mothers were made to have a sleep every afternoon and to get plenty of rest at other times. "Even when I was going home matron made me sit on the bed until the ambulance came to pick us up," she recalled.

Mrs Joan Berry, of Stonehouse, remembers that all mothers had to stay at the maternity hospital for 14 days before they were allowed home and they were not allowed to have the babies with them in the ward. "The babies were kept in the nursery," she said, "and only brought in to us for us to feed them."

Other mothers remember that visiting hours were strict and children were not allowed into the building at all so mothers had to hold their babies up to the window to show them off to siblings standing outside.

Mrs Elsie Brown, whose daughter Diane Joy (Joy because she was her first daughter after six sons) was born on August 30, 1953, still has clear memories of Stroud Maternity's first matron, Miss Haskins. "She was strict but she was a gem," she remembered, "and so were all the nurses and I can remember that after 50 years." Perhaps one of the most memorable births that year was that of Dennis Brown, who will be 50 on December 23 this year. His mother, Pauline was in labour and on her way from Stonehouse to Stroud Maternity in the ambulance when the ambulance driver, whom she knew, asked her if she would mind if he stopped off for a moment at the watch menders to pick up his watch.

Mrs Brown agreed and was in such an advanced state of labour by the time they finally arrived that Dennis was born 15 minutes later.

Today the standards at Stroud Maternity are just as high, although the regime is a lot more relaxed. The average length of stay is reduced to less than a week and within reason, husbands can visit when they like, and bring their children in with them.

Mothers have their babies with them in the wards and while rest is still encouraged for the mothers they can sleep on their sides, backs or any way they like.

A birthing pool is now available, the old cloth cots have been done away with, mothers can feed their babies on demand and it is no longer obligatory for mothers to be referred to as "Mrs" whether or not they are married.

The number of births at Stroud Maternity fell from a peak of more than 500 a week in the 1950s to only just over 200 in 1997 but by last year it was up again to 280, with over 300 mothers transferring to Stroud from the acute hospitals in Cheltenham and Gloucester soon after the birth of their babies.

Having been under threat of closure in the mid 1990s, Stroud Maternity is no longer under review, its record as a midwife-led unit is second to none and staff from other maternity units all over the country are constant visitors to Stroud to see how it should be done.

But the staff at Stroud are not complacent, far from it. "However good you are there is always room for improvement and we are constantly looking at ways we could do things better," said Michelle Poole, head of midwifery at Stroud.

And she added that with the birth rate all over the country steadily declining it was important that expectant mothers in the Stroud Valleys and beyond continue to think of Stroud Maternity as their first port of call so that it can survive as a unique facility for the mothers of the district for another 50 years.