St Teresas maternity Hosp , Wimbledon

[lovey]

looking for any information on St Teresa hospital in wimbledon, was it a mother and baby home, fallen women, or jsut a maternity hospital, my husband was born there then adopted ,.

[jorose]

I don't know what time period you're looking at, but in 1956 a BMJ news item mentions a new wing of 18 beds being opened, for private obstetrical patients.  It says St. Teresa is independent (as opposed to NHS); and it appears to have Catholic connections.

There's also quite a bit about it around 1967:
(if these don't open for you I can summarise - it appears to have been an independent hospital but one that took NHS patients and there was an intent to withdraw that NHS support).
http://www.bmj.com/content/2/5543/54.5.full.pdf+html
http://www.bmj.com/content/2/5554/767.5.full.pdf+html

[Valda]

Hi


Pre 1948 it appears to have been a maternity hospital

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=2539&hospital=st+teresa&town=&searchdatabase.x=48&searchdatabase.y=12


Regards

Valda

[Bebi]

I would just like to say that back in 1951 St Teresa's was used by the National Health service as a maternity hospital. I was born there in July 1951 after my Mother was sent there by her GP, we lived in Battersea in London and our GP was in Wandsworth which was the catchment area for St Teresa's.

Mum was sent there as she had had a normal pregnancy and although she was 31 and it was her first child they felt she was not at risk of a difficult birth. She proved them wrong as I was a ceasarean birth. Both of us were looked after very well, staying in for approx. three weeks and cared for my nurses and doctors on the NHS and the a large number of Nuns from the local convent.   

I feel previlaged to have been born in such a calm and caring enviroment.

[finchleygirl]

I would also like to say that I've often been proud to mention that I was born in St Teresa's maternity hospital run by Nuns in 1959.  My younger sister was also born there in 1962.
 One of my earliest memories is sitting in the corridor with my Dad watching the Nuns walk passed while waiting to see my Mum and new baby sister.
I did hear some years ago that celebrities have had their babies there, Hayley Mills was one although I am not sure if this is correct.
I am really enjoying watching "Midwives" on BBc1 at the moment which has shown my now adult childen that Nuns did help deliver babies.

[tomsk]

I too am a lucky baby to have been born at St Teresa's in 1966.  My mother said it was a lovely, sociable time and a real chance for a rest - 10 days to stay in bed and recover in those days!  She told me new mums sat up in their beds, knitted and chatted to the each other.
She said while in labour she wanted to get up on all fours to deliver but the nuns frowned on this practice and insisted she remained on her back.
Apparently I was born a few weeks premature and at one point my future did not look promising so my parents were urged to name and christen me 'in time'. 
So I was named Teresa after the hospital!

[evjanderson]

I was born  there in 1967 and adopted. I am in touch with my birth mother now and she said she never saw me when i was born - I was whisked away immediately. I don't know if this was common practice by the nuns.
Also she told me she was told that I was a boy and on my birth certificate I am down as a boy and even have the name 'Peter'! It was amended at a later date and I wonder if this is because she told the registrar that I was a boy and she had been told this by the nuns and had never seen me. I also wonder if there actually had been a baby boy born there on the same day who was also to be adopted and there had been a mix-up with the information. It leads me to think that there were a lot of Catholic girls going there to have babies that were to be adopted so even though it was a maternity hospital it was well used to dealing with unwanted babies too.

Emma

[Wiccapedia]

My daughter was born there in 1979, it was private then. My husband was also born there in 1956. It had been a maternity hospital since then until it closed. When my daughter was born, it was staffed by nuns, partly, I believe it was the Ursuline Order. I believe it was a missionary order because the nun who attended me had been forcibly repatriated from Zimbabwe during independence at that time. On the day my daughter was born, Rula Lenska's daughter Lara was also born there. At that time there was no operating theatre, my daughter was a breach and there were discussions during my labour about putting me into an ambulance and taking me off to St Helier's in Morden a few miles away for a C-Section, but in the end I delivered her. I had an epidural administered by the man who developed epidurals who was visiting the UK and teaching obstetricians how to do them. I was News Editor of Nursing Mirror magazine at the time and went private because of all the horror stories I had covered about obstetric mishaps, bad decision since they did not tell me when I paid up that they had no OT!!!! I don't know precisely why it closed down but I'm guessing based on my experiences that it just wasn't possible to update it.

[Relsearcher]

Hello - I was born there in 1970.  I contacted the local Merton Heritage Centre 4 years ago regarding the fate of the hospital - it is now no more and the site of a town house developement at 12 The Downs, Wimbledon.  I have a photo that they emailed me - can I upoad it or is that breaking any laws?  Nina