Maternity ward now rubble

The 62-year-old maternity ward on Miranda Street was demolished last week after it was deliberately set on fire in

February  this year.

Last Wednesday, residents watched as a digger began to pull the building down.

As the digger ripped down the most damaged part of the building, black dust filled the air.

``It's been interesting to watch it stage by stage, but it's so sad,'' says nearby resident, Vereena Sutton.

Raewyn Healy commented on the Stratford Press' story `Part of history goes up in flames'.

``I feel a real sense of loss. That's a part of history that has been destroyed. I was born in

that very hospital in 1964,'' she wrote.

The building was officially closed last year and there had been talk of homeless people sleeping in the vacant building, and vandalism was also a problem.

Following the demolition, the building was nothing but a heap of rubble.

Stratford's Rose Secker trained and nursed at the hospital and is saddened by the fate of the building.

``It's really, really sad. Now that we can see it, the damage was far worse than first anticipated.''

The maternity ward was first opened in October of 1950, with 14 beds.

Minister of health, Mr J T Watts, at the opening of the building, said he believed prospective mums and dads

would keep the ward full and within a matter of time, more beds would be added.

``I hope many thousands of New Zealanders will be born here.''

There were 12 single rooms and one double, as well as nine nurses' bedrooms and a suite for the charge sister.

In the earlier days of the ward, mothers were kept in for 14 days and fathers were not permitted in the delivery rooms. When regulations lightened, nurses said many of them were light-headed and needed to lie down

anyway.

Babies were cared for in the nursery by nurses and brought to the mothers at set times for feeding. On their 11th day, mothers were shown how to bath their babies.

During the years of 1955-1957, four more beds were added to the ward.

Within the building there were also ante-natal facilities, a silent call system, a sisters' office, first stage wards,

nurseries for premature babies as well as a kitchen and a laundry.

In 1975, it was decided that all neo-natal problems would be sent to Taranaki Base Hospital, which was disappointing for the staff as there were now fewer opportunities to gain experience and training.

During 1977, there was a 90 per cent increase in rooming-in patients but in 1979, it was the first time since 1950 numbers had dropped below 300 a year.

In 1982, the hospital was able to scan for multiple births, which was a first for the ward, after the Round Table Services Club donated a foetal scanner worth $18,068.35.

Rose began her training at the hospital in May of 1960 and trained until 1963, before nursing there from 1966-1975 and is now part of the committee recording the history of the hospital at the Pioneer Village.

* Police are still waiting for forensic results but no arrests have been made.

A man and a woman were seen running from the scene on the morning of the fire.

The man is believed to be aged in his 30s and is described as a European, of short and skinny build, with dark-blonde hair.  The woman,   in her 20s, is also reported as a skinny and short European, with red hair.