Workhouse infirmaries used as lying-in hospitals

[Jill Eaton]

I've tried to do some research on this but can't really find a satisfactory answer.

Do any Rootschatters know anything about giving birth in the workhouse?

Did girls/women have to be admitted and staying in the workhouse before their confinement or where they admitted when they went into labour?

Would they have had to leave straight after the birth or could they stay as inmates with their child until they discharged themselves?

[JMB1943]

A very interesting question !
Of special note to me, who had a forebear born out-of-wedlock in the mother’s local Union Workhouse.
I had assumed that it was because her parents had turned her out of their home, and she had nowhere else to go.
Your post raises the alternative, that this was a common practice to use the infirmary as a birthplace.
There must be SOME social historians out there who could answer this.
Regards,
JMB

[KGarrad]

www.workhouses.org.uk is the "go-to" site for information re workhouses.

In this instance, see: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/life/medical.shtml

An alternative site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workhouse_infirmary

[maryalex]

One of my grandfather's sisters died, aged 16, of heart disease in a workhouse in Ireland in 1896.  Her death certificate shows her home address  and describes her occupation as daughter of a landholder.  The impression I have is that people needing hospital treatment could be admitted to the workhouse infirmary, not just to give birth and without having to be a pauper.

[Jill Eaton]

I don't know who would have provided midwifery services in Victorian Britain to the poorest parts of the city where my ancestors lived. Even assuming there was a female with some experience of delivering babies living in the vicinity - would her services been free or would she have charged?

If she charged would the very poor have had the money to spare? Perhaps older female relatives helped with the delivery but what if there wasn't anyone like this living in the house/room?

Perhaps delivering in the workhouse, as questionable as the hygiene and expertise was, might still have been the better option?

[KGarrad]

Article here:
http://www.kghypnobirthing.com/pregnancy-information/history-of-hypnobirthing/childbirth-through-the-ages.html

[margabbey1]

Hi, I know this is an old chat but one that I have interest in. I read a throw away comment somewhere  that some women went into workhouses just to have a babies as it was cheaper and provided more medical care than in the community.  Has anyone read any article that substantiates this?  I have two ancestors born to the same woman who were born in Caistor Workhouse.  The first one was illegitimate but the second one was later on after she was married.  She wasn't separated from her husband as they later went on to have many other children in their own home.

[Jebber]

Welcome to Rootschat.

It was quite normal for women to go into the workhouse Infirmary to give birth. There are many reasons why a woman may not have been able to have the baby at home, then the only option was the workhouse Infirmary, unless you could afford to pay to go into hospital. This was the case right up until the creation if the National  Health Service, when the Infirmaries became NHS Hospitals

The workhouse  Infirmary was usually the only option for the poor who need hospitalisation for any medical treatment. You may discover more workhouse deliveries than are at first obvious. Because of the stigma of the workhouse, around the turn of the century, it became customary for just the address of the workhouse to be entered on the birth certificate. So if you find a certificate with an unfamiliar address, look to see if it could have been the workhouse.

  My mother-in-law’s birth certificate from 1920, shows just the street  name and number, but I know it was the workhouse Infirmary. In fact, it was only demolished about five years ago.

[chris_49]

There's at least one other thread on this subject area (I know becauseI posted on it.)

I posted that author Lorna Sage gave birth in a workhouse in Cross Houses, Shropshire, quite a long way from her home in Whitchurch, in the 50s. (In her autobiography, "Bad Blood".) It was where the unmarried mothers gave birth, though she'd actually just been married in a hurry. The shame, I suppose.