Babies … came flying out of that shute!
In January 2021 artist Peter Poulet spent time listening to memories of the Maitland Hospital and creating drawings in response to those memories. A number of people shared their recollections of the maternity ward and the births of siblings, children and grandchildren. Some of those recollections are shared here. Other people subsequently shared their memories and those memories are being added.
“Coming into this field you get to enjoy so much. It is such a happy field of work and very different … when people are sick, they’re sick, but with maternity – it’s such a joyful time for people. Yes. It does have some dreadful aspects as well but, in the majority, it is a very happy time for people… ”
I’ve had some great joys. I’ve had children at the Maitland Hospital. I’ve lost children at the Maitland Hospital. I guess one of the reasons I wanted to talk was to make sure that – I’m not the only one who has lost children in that space – and when you lose a child, at any age, the connection to that space becomes incredibly deep. So, even when you look at it as you drive past, you remember – I’m getting teary now – you remember that. And I think every parent remembers that. So every parent looks at that space and goes, gosh, that’s where I had to leave my child. So I wanted to make sure that was there. (Tara Dever-Cooper)
‘My very earliest memories are of seeing my Mum in the window of that very old maternity ward. I was actually born at Greta Migrant Camp. My parents are Ukrainian. I remember Mum sitting in that window waiting for Dad and myself after my youngest brother was born.’ (Olga McTaggart)
‘We have four children, all born in Maitland Hospital… when my first three children were born the labour ward was in the meeting room which is in the top floor of the administration building… Originally there was a walkway between the top of one of the medical wards across to the administration building, to the verandah, and any woman who was in labour had to climb up those stairs and walk across that walkway to get to the top floor of the administration building to get to the labour ward. And if they were not able to walk, they were carried on a canvas stretcher across that walkway. I think there was a lift up to a certain level. Interesting enough, when you were the father of the child who was to be born, you were able to get to the verandah of that administration building – on the east side of it – you pressed the bell, the attending nurse came out and said ‘thank you Mr Lynch, you can go now, we’ll ring you when we know something.’ !! (Trevor Lynch)
Patrick Lane and his four brothers were all born in the Maitland Hospital ‘in the old maternity ward’. He also remembers ‘my father being discharged at the end of a corridor and being told to go home and wait for a phone call.’
Patrick, as a young child, also thought that babies ‘came flying out of that shute’. As he explains:
We lived west of Maitland when I was growing up and so we passed the hospital every single day in the bus and the car…I remember when I was young they were doing some sort of renovation to the old maternity ward and there was a shute that came out like a slide, where they were obviously putting building materials that were being exhumed from the building. Before I knew where babies came from, I immediately assumed that’s where the children came from – they came flying out of the shute!
Left: Peter Poulet’s drawing in response to Patrick Lane’s shared memories. The baby shute particularly captured Peter’s imagination as did Patrick’s cycling.
“Maitland Hospital has such a profound place in my heart. I delivered my two babies at the hospital, with the loving care of midwives.”
Posted: 27 April 2021
Updated: 5 February 2022