The Rise and Fall of National Women's Hospital : A History

In this major history, Linda Bryder traces the annals of National Women’s Hospital over half a century in order to tell a wider story of reproductive health. She uses the varying perspectives of doctors, nurses, midwives, consumer groups, and patients to show how together their dialog shaped the nature of motherhood and women’s health in 20th-century New Zealand. Natural childbirth and rooming in, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, sterilization and abortion: women’s health and reproduction went through a revolution in the 20th century as scientific advances confronted ethical and political dilemmas. In New Zealand, the major site for this revolution was National Women’s Hospital. Established in Auckland in 1946, with a purpose-built building that opened in 1964, National Women’s was the home of medical breakthroughs scandals. This chronicle covers them all. Natural childbirth and rooming in; artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation; sterilisation and abortion : women's health and reproduction went through a revolution in the twentieth century as scientific advances confronted ethical and political dilemmas. In New Zealand, the major site for this revolution was National Women's Hospital. Established in Auckland in 1946, with a purpose-built building that opened in 1964, National Women's was the home of medical breakthroughs by Sir William (Bill) Liley and Sir Graham (Mont) Liggins; of the Lawson quintuplets and the 'glamorous gynaecologists'; and of scandals surrounding the 'unfortunate experiment' and the neonatal chest physiotherapy inquiry. In this major history, Linda Bryder traces the rise and fall of National Women's over half a century in order to tell a wider story of reproductive health. She uses the varying perspectives of doctors, nurses, midwives, consumer groups and patients to show how together their dialogue shaped the nature of motherhood and women's health in twentieth-century New Zealand Natural childbirth and rooming-in; artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation; sterilisation and abortion: women's health and reproduction went through a revolution in the twentieth century as scientific advances confronted ethical and political dilemmas. In New Zealand, the major site for this revolution was National Women's Hospital. Established in Auckland in 1946, with a purpose-built building that opened in 1964, National Women's was the home of medical breakthroughs by Sir William (Bill) Liley and Sir Graham (Mont) Liggins; of the Lawson quintuplets and the'glamorous gynaecologists'; and of scandals surrounding the so-called'unfortunate experiment'and the neonatal chest physiotherapy inquiry. In this major history, Linda Bryder traces the evolution of National Women's in order to tell a wider story of reproductive health. She uses the varying perspectives of doctors, nurses, midwives, consumer groups and patients to show how together their dialogue shaped the nature of motherhood and women's health in twentieth-century New Zealand. "In this major history, Linda Bryder traces the rise and fall of National Women's over half a century in order to tell a wider story of reproductive health. She uses the varying perspectives of doctors, nurses, midwives, consumer groups and patients to show how together their dialogue shaped the nature of motherhood and women's health in twentieth-century New Zealand"--Publisher's description