In 1888/89 the hospital changed its Midwifery Department record keeping system from one record (Midwifery Books, Series 47) to two by introducing Birth Registers (Series 158) and the more detailed Labour Ward Case Books (Series 156). The Case Books are a chronological sequence in which the patients of all the Honorary Physicians are recorded.

There seems also to have been a transition stage when individual doctors maintained their own midwifery case books, as was done in the Infirmary Department, as there are two extant Honorary Physicians' Case Books (Dr O'Sullivan, 1888-1889 and Dr Hooper 1888-1891 [Series 154]). There may have been others.

The earliest existing Labour Ward Case Book is "Labour Book No 2", 1888-1892 (A1994/25/01), suggesting an earlier volume has been lost. Other volumes may well have been lost also, as numbering and dates are not consecutive or complete.

"Labour Book No 2" duplicates some of the cases recorded in the two Honorary Physicians' Case Books. There are however many more cases in the doctors' Case Books which are not in "Labour Book No 2". It is not known if the other Honorary Physicians also had their own Case Books at this time and therefore how complete the record in "Labour Ward Book No 2", or the other early Case Books is.

The Labour Ward Case Books from this early period are very large leather bound volumes. They have all been microfilmed (Series 152).

Labour Ward Case Books from 1904-1928 have been destroyed, although there are indexes for the period 1/1/1920 to 29/9/1931 (Series 0318). The Medical Records Department microfilmed a very large quantity of records in 1968 ("nearly 80 years" worth) in order to destroy the originals before moving into the 3AW Block. It’s possible that the Labour Ward Case Books were among them and could be recovered - further research is required to find out if this is so.

The second surviving sequence of Labour Ward Case books commences in 1928. At this time there was one labour ward (Ward 30) situated on the ground floor of the Edward Wilson Wing in Cardigan Street. In 1958 a second labour ward (Ward 19) opened on the 6th floor of the recently constructed Kumm Stephens Block and a new sequence began for that ward. The records were maintained in substantially smaller leather bound volumes until 1969/72 when the Midwifery Department progressively moved into six new labour wards in the newly built 3AW Community Services Block. At that stage they changed to large format (550mm x 340mm) volumes bound with cardboard and linen (essentially oversized exercise books), except for the first volume used in Frances Perry House which was in the previous format. These volumes form a continuous chronological and almost unbroken sequence from 6/5/1928 to 31/12/1972.

As each new Labour Ward opened it began to keep its own records, and so there are sequences from each ward:
Labour Ward 24 1/1/1793-31/12/1982
Labour Ward 34 3/7/1969-26/2/1973
Labour Ward 44 30/3/1971-31/12/1982
Labour Ward 54/Family Birth Unit 3/7/1969-31/12/1982
Labour Ward 64 23/7/1970-18/12/1972
Frances Perry House 5/11/1970-31/3/1972, 26/6/1972-31/12/1982

One volume shows the transition from L.W. 19 to the new L.W. 24 on 7/6/1969. When the Family Birth Centre opened it continued using the same volume as its predecessor, Ward 54.

Further research is needed to show when the Midwifery Department began to create individual patient files. From this stage the Labour Ward Case Books are more of a summary than the principal clinical record. Patient files are managed by RWH Health Information Services and are regarded as permanent records by the hospital.

Care must be taken in relying on the details found in records from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as there are many discrepancies between this information and that given in Birth Certificates and other hospital records of the same period - for example, names are spelled differently, mothers’ ages vary and even birth dates are inconsistent. In some instances births are recorded in the L.W. Case Books, but not in the Birth Register.

Patient histories are recorded chronologically and are not indexed. (The three so-called Indexes are chronological as well and do not assist in finding a particular patient.) It is necessary to know the date of a birth (or more specifically, date of admission) to find a particular entry. No details are given regarding fathers, mothers’ addresses or where mothers or babies went after discharge.

Home Births conducted by the Women’s Hospital, 1920-1951, are recorded in the Extern Case Books (Series 318).

Access Conditions: Strict patient confidentiality provisions apply. Refer to to the Archivist or the Freedom of Information Officer in Health Information Services.

Microfilm is always to be used for reference in preference to the originals, except to clarify illegible text on the film. Access to the originals will be under supervision of the Archivist.