It was July 1967 when Bernadette Dunne’s labour on her second child began. The time between contractions was quickening when her husband put her in the car and drove her to the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin 8.
When they arrived, however, they were told the building had closed down and they had to go to a new hospital building nearby.
“I couldn’t fathom it at the time. But when I arrived [at the new building] everything was so spanking new,” she said. “Everybody who worked here came down to wish me luck and say ‘hi’ because they wanted to see who was the first woman who would give birth [here].”
Another woman was admitted around the same time, Dunne recalled, “and they were wondering who was going to be first, but as if I cared at that stage, you know? I was a bit busy.”
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When her daughter, Louise Egan, finally arrived, Dunne was informed that she was the first new baby to be born in the new hospital.
Laughing that they were made to feel like VIPs or celebrities, Dunne says local businessman Paddy Whelan brought her a pram as a present to mark the occasion.
“I was just so glad it was over, but everybody was lovely. They really were,” she said.
The treatment they received then was one of the reasons why Egan decided to have her own daughters in the Coombe.
“It’s really nice to see how the hospital has grown and all the different departments now,” he said. “Back then [when she was born] women just had their babies, but now there is so much more to it.”
[ Study of Coombe hospital over 60 years shows progress of Irish maternity careOpens in new window ]
Almost 60 years later, the mother and daughter visited the Coombe on Friday to see a series of commemorative flags – designed in collaboration with students from the National College of Art and Design – raised to mark the hospital’s 200th anniversary.
The Coombe was established in 1826 following a tragedy in the winter of 1825 when two women and their newborn babies died near Thomas Street while trying to reach the Rotunda Hospital on the city’s northside during a snowstorm.
There was widespread outcry following their deaths and this prompted Margaret Boyle to purchase and repurpose the vacated Meath Hospital building in the Coombe area of Dublin’s Liberties. She wanted to ensure vulnerable pregnant women would never again have to endure such dangerous conditions to receive obstetric care. The hospital then moved to its current site in 1967.
Master of the Coombe Prof Michael O’Connell said a lot has changed over the past two centuries, which means improved care for women and babies.
He said the hospital expected to deliver a baby weighing 400g (less than 1lb) at 24 weeks on Friday.
“Those babies wouldn’t have survived before,” he said “There was no neonatology care for babies. When you look at the obstetric element of it, the changes that have occurred include antibiotics, oxytocin ... ultrasounds. So we’ve come so far. We see scans now that we wouldn’t have been able to interpret in those days.”
Almost 6,500 women gave birth at the Coombe last year and about 900 babies were cared for in its neonatal unit.
The hospital also delivered benign gynaecological services in Ireland, with 19,000 attendances at outpatient gynaecology clinics and just under 7,000 gynaecological surgical procedures performed.
While O’Connell is proud of the successes and improvements, he also acknowledges the challenges, with infrastructure being a significant one.
“Our neonatal unit, for instance, was never devised to look after babies from 22 weeks on. We’ve infrastructurally tried to adapt, but it’s not ideal. In essence, the hospital does need a serious uplift. We have lots of work with the HSE Estates to do that and we are progressing it but it’s quite slow process.”
