Original Rotunda Hospital site memoralised with plaque

The site of the Rotunda’s First Lying-In Hospital at 60 South Great Georges Street, now home to Decwells Hardware, was memorialised by a Dublin City Council commemorative plaque earlier today.   

The first iteration of the Rotunda Hospital was founded over 200 years ago by Dr Bartholomew Mosse in an effort to mitigate the poor health care service often experienced by expectant mothers in Dublin City. A three story house on South Great George’s street was converted into a Maternity Hospital; opening its doors on March 15th 1745 and delivering its first infant on March 20th 1745. It operated from these premises from 1745 to 1757.

Speaking at the plaque unveiling, The Lord Mayor of Dublin James Geoghegan said “The 1740s was a particularly bad time to be a child. Infant mortality rates, high to start with, had doubled over the previous 100 years. Bartholomew Mosse decided to take women out of the slums. His lying-in hospital meant just that. Expectant mothers would lie-in, in advance of childbirth and be tended to by trained staff.  His specialist premises provided shelter, warmth, food, and medical care for mothers.”

The Lord Mayor continued, “Our maternity service today is staffed by 4,250 midwives and delivers 60,000 babies a year. Most of these are delivered by midwives and 98 percent are seen in their own home within 72 hours of discharge by a public health nurse. Our rates of childhood mortality are among the lowest in the world and lower than our peers. Bartholomew would be proud.”

Professor Seán Daly, Master of the Rotunda commented that: “it is remarkable to think that a humble maternity hospital which opened at South Great Georges Street over 200 years ago supported the birth of over 4,000 children and the safe care of their mothers during its twelve years of operation. It is equally of note at the location was also the site of the first midwifery training hospital in both Ireland and Great Britain.”

Professor Daly continued, “In many ways, this first “lying-in hospital” was a victim of its own success; so in demand were their services that the building quickly became too small to cater for all the expectant mothers who needed to avail of their services, and so eventually the hospital was relocated to the site of the current Rotunda. The current Rotunda Hospital is the oldest maternity hospital in the world and will deliver its one- millionth baby in 2027.  However, I am delighted that DCC have decided to mark the site of the first Rotunda “Lying-In Hospital”, and pay homage to all those who availed of its services. Since that day the Rotunda has been part of the heart of Dublin city and intends to remain so.”