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.^[5] However the building was not suitable and the hospital relocated to a larger building in Colombo St, Newtown in September 1908. This building proved too small and in 1909 a new site was acquired but this too was regarded as unsuitable and another site was purchased in Coromandel Street, Newtown in 1910.^[7][8] The hospital was opened on 2 July 1912 and could accommodate 30 patients.^[7][9]

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.^[10] Twelve years later it was decided that St Helens would close and its services were moved to Wellington Women's Hospital.^[4] This was met with opposition to the medicalisation of birth in the new hospital and the reduction of women's right to choose the type of birth and post-natal care they desired.^[11][12] The St Helens building remained empty for eleven years and was finally sold to private developers for conversion to apartments.^[13]

Dunedin

The Dunedin St Helens opened on 30 September 1905 at 9 Regent Rd, Dunedin.^{[14][7][15][16]} It closed in January 1938 when the Queen Mary Maternity Hospital opened.^[7][17]

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.^[3][15] A hospital known as the Batchelor Hospital was opened to train medical students.^[2][3][18]

By 1919 there were insufficient cases for the medical students at the Batchelor Hospital.^[7] In 1918 the Health Department agreed to allow women medical students to attend births at St Helens but permission was subsequently granted for male students if patient consent was obtained.^[6]

Auckland

The first St Helens Hospital in Auckland was opened on 14 January 1906 in Pitt Street in a house formerly owned by the family of Dr Arthur Guyon Purchas. It was to be officially opened by Richard Seddon but he died en route from Sydney to Auckland in June 1906. A lamp post was erected outside the hospital in 1906 to commemorate him. In 1922 a second St Helens was built next to the Pitt St building, the original building being used for the Nurses' Home. The location was noisy, being near the Pitt Street Fire Station. By 1938 it had 32 beds making it the largest maternity hospital in the country but still not big enough to meet the demands of the population.^[1][3] The building was finally demolished in 2002 to make way for an apartment building.^[7][19]

Plans for a new purpose built St Helens were published in 1959.^[20] In 1968 the hospital moved to a new four storey building in Linwood Avenue, Mt Albert. It opened on 15 October 1968 with 52 beds.^[1] When it was announced in 1989 that the hospital would close and services move to National Women's Hospital there was opposition and a 'Save St Helens' campaign.^[21] The hospital closed on 12 June 1990.^[1] In 1993 the building became part of the Auckland Institute of Studies, a private university.^[1]

Christchurch

A small hotel on the corner of Durham and Battersea streets in Sydenham, Christchurch was purchased for the hospital which opened in May 1907.^[3][7][22] The building was not suitable and plans for a new building were shelved when war broke out in 1914. It was not until 1938 that a site for a new building opposite the public hospital was purchased but the outbreak of World War II again postponed building. A new site was procured in the northern part of the city and the building opened on 21 June 1952.^[7] Midwives carried out district midwifery services outside the hospital.^[7]

In 1968 St Helens merged with Christchurch Women's Hospital.^[4]

Gisborne

In Gisborne the Townley Maternity Home, which was established in 1909, was converted by the government into Townley St Helens Hospital and opened in November 1915.^[23][24] It closed in 1935 after the establishment of a maternity annex at Cook Hospital.^[7][25]

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.^[7][26][27] It closed in 1952.^[7]

Wanganui

The Wanganui St Helens opened in 1921 in a building in Heads Road adjacent to the Wanganui Hospital. The building was owned by a prominent citizen Mr Hope Gibbons and had been previously used as a convalescent home for returned servicemen after World War 1; when it was no longer needed as a convalescent home he offered the building to the government rent-free. In 1933 the Hospital Board took over St Helens and it became known as the Jessie Hope Gibbons Hospital in honour of Hope Gibbons's wife. It closed in 1955 when the Wanganui Maternity Hospital opened. Dr Douglas Wilson was in charge of St Helens and Jessie Hope Gibbons Hospital from 1921 to 1948.^[28]

Midwives

• Amelia Bagley (Wellington)
• Jessie Bicknell (Dunedin)
• Flora Cameron (Auckland)
• Marie McNaughton Cameron (Christchurch, matron 1910–1915)^[29]
• Joan Donley (Auckland)
• Eunice Eichler (Christchurch)
• Vera Ellis-Crowther (Auckland)
• Alice Holford (Dunedin)
• Helen Inglis (Wellington and Christchurch)
• Mabel Mangakāhia (Auckland)
• René Shadbolt (Auckland)

Doctors

• Leslie Averill (Christchurch)
• Agnes Bennett (Wellington)
• Sylvia Chapman (Wellington)
• Emily Siedeburg (Dunedin)
• Russell Tracy-Inglis (Auckland)