Rotunda Hospital
The Rotunda Hospital (Irish: Ospidéal an Rotunda;[1] legally The Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin[2]) is a maternity hospital in Parnell Street, Dublin, Ireland, now managed by RCSI Hospitals.[3] The eponymous Rotunda in Parnell Square is no longer a part of the hospital complex.
Rotunda Hospital | |
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Health Service Executive | |
![]() Rotunda Hospital frontage on Parnell Street | |
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![]() ![]() Shown in Dublin | |
Geography | |
Location | Parnell Street, Dublin, Ireland |
Coordinates | 53.3526°N 6.2626°W |
Organisation | |
Care system | HSE |
Type | Specialist |
Affiliated university | Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Dublin City University |
Services | |
Speciality | Maternity hospital |
History | |
Opened | 1745 |
History
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The hospital was founded by Bartholomew Mosse, a surgeon and midwife who was appalled at the conditions that pregnant women had to endure, in George's Lane in March 1745.[4] It was granted by Royal Charter on 2 December 1756 by King George II.[5] Lying-in is an archaic term for childbirth (referring to the month-long bed rest prescribed for postpartum confinement).[6] The venture was very successful and Mosse raised money through concerts, exhibitions and even a lottery to establish larger premises.[7] The hospital moved to new premises, designed by Richard Cassels,[8] where it became known as "The New Lying-In Hospital" in December 1757.[9] The Church of Ireland Chapel was opened in 1762.[10] Open to the public, it provided a healthy income to the hospital annually, Dr. Mosse successfully encouraging wealthy protestant Dubliners to attend service there.[11][12]
Records indicate that around 1781, "when the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease; and that after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same, in five succeeding years, was reduced to one in twenty".[13] This issue was not limited to the Lying-In-Hospital. In that era, ventilation improvement was a general issue in patient care,[14] along with other issues of sanitation and hygiene, and the conditions in which surgeons such as Robert Liston in Britain and elsewhere, had to operate.[15][16] Florence Nightingale famously worked on the design of safe and healthy hospitals.[14]
The first caesarean section in Ireland was undertaken at the hospital in 1889.[17]
Rotunda
The eponymous Rotunda is a rotunda designed by James Ensor,[8] which was completed just in time for a reception hosted by the James FitzGerald, Marquess of Kildare in October 1767.[18] The extensive Rotunda Rooms, designed by Richard Johnston and built adjacent to the rotunda, were completed in 1791.[19] By the early 19th century the hospital had become known as the Rotunda Hospital, after its most prominent architectural feature.[20] The Rotunda became a theatre, where the Irish Volunteers' first public meeting was held in 1913, and later the Ambassador Cinema. The Rotunda Rooms now house the Gate Theatre.[21]
Services
The Rotunda Hospital, as both a maternity hospital and also as a training centre (affiliated with Trinity College Dublin)[22] is notable for having provided continuous service to mothers and babies since inception, making it the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world.[23] It is estimated that over 300,000 babies have been born there.[24]
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See also
- General Lying-In Hospital, London
References
- "Ospidéal an Rotunda". téarma.ie. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
- "S.I. No. 329/1999 - Freedom of Information Act, 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations, 1999". electronic Irish Statute Book. First Schedule, No.30. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
- "Six hospital groups 'most fundamental reform in decades'". Irish Medical Times. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- Kirkpatrick, p. 7
- "The Rotunda Charter Booklet" (PDF). Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- Slemons, J. Morris (1912). "The Prospective Mother: A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy".
- Kirkpatrick, p. 25
- "Rotunda Hospital". Architecture Of Dublin. Archiseek.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- Kirkpatrick, p. 35
- "Chronological History of the Rotunda Hospital" (PDF). Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- "History: Heroes: Bartholomew Mosse". www.turtlebunbury.com. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- "Bartholomew Mosse and the Rotunda". Newstalk. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- Claridge, Capt. R.T. (1843). Hydropathy; or The Cold Water Cure, as practiced by Vincent Priessnitz, at Graefenberg, Silesia, Austria (8th ed.). London: James Madden and Co. p. 37. Retrieved 2009-10-29. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org).
- Nightingale, Florence (1860). Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not. Boston: William Carter. Retrieved 2009-10-24. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
- Gordon, Richard (1983). "Disastrous Motherhood: Tales from the Vienna Wards". Great Medical Disasters. London: Hutchinson & Co. pp. 43–46. p.43
- Holmes, O.W. (March 1842). "On the contagiousness of puerperal fever". New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine. i: 503–30. in Gordon, R. (1983), p.147.
- "New RTE series delves behind the scenes at world's longest running maternity hospital in Dublin". Irish Post. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- Kirkpatrick, p. 68
- Kirkpatrick, p. 104
- Kirkpatrick, p. 198
- "90 Years of The Gate Theatre | Dublin City Council". www.dublincity.ie. Retrieved 2018-06-28.
- "Trinity College Campus Maps:-Rotunda". University Of Dublin, Trinity College. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- "The Rotunda: Behind the scenes at the world's oldest maternity hospital". Irish Times. 14 September 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- "Patient Information Booklet" (PDF). Totunda Hospital. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
Sources
- Kirkpatrick, T. Percy C. (1913). The Book of the Rotunda Hospital. Adlard & Son, Bartholomew Press.