The St Helens Hospitals were maternity hospitals located in seven New Zealand cities. They were the first state-run maternity hospitals in the world offering both midwifery services and midwifery training. The first hospital opened in 1905 in Wellington and the last one in Wanganui in 1921. The services of the St Helens Hospitals were gradually incorporated into other hospitals and the last hospital to close was in Auckland in 1990.
A nurse assisting a mother with a newborn baby at St Helens Hospital, Wellington (1970)
St Helens Maternity Hospital in Wellington, pictured in 1970
St Helens Hospital in Pitt Street, Auckland, pictured in 1922
Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd Bennett MB CM MD was a New Zealand doctor, a Chief Medical Officer of a World War I medical unit for which she was awarded the Serbian Order of St Sava and later was awarded an O.B.E. for her services in improving the health of women and children.
Agnes Bennett passport application (1931)