The Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson Memorial Pavilion was a

maternity hospital A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most ...

Lauriston Lauriston ( ) is an area of central Edinburgh, Scotland, and home to a number of significant historic buildings. It lies south of Edinburgh Castle and the Grassmarket, and north of The Meadows public park. Lauriston is the former location ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. Its services have now been incorporated into the

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Com ...

Little France Little France is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the A7, approximately south of the city centre. The area falls within the parish of Liberton in the south-east of the city. It acquired its name from members of the e ...

History

Midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

in Edinburgh, as a part of the medical curriculum, began in 1756 with Thomas Young, professor of midwifery. Early provisions for midwifery consisted of four maternity beds at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary in 1756. Young's predecessor, Alexander Hamilton, was responsible for establishing the independent Edinburgh General Lying-in Hospital which afforded students the opportunity for practical experience. ("

Lying-in Lying-in is the term given to the European forms of postpartum confinement, the traditional practice involving long bed rest before and after giving birth. The term and the practice it describes are old-fashioned or archaic, but lying-in u ...

" is an archaic term for childbirth, referring to the long

bedrest Bed rest, also referred to as the rest-cure, is a medical treatment in which a person lies in bed for most of the time to try to cure an illness. Bed rest refers to voluntarily lying in bed as a treatment and not being confined to bed because of ...

prescribed for new mothers in their

postpartum confinement Postpartum confinement is a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the seclusion or special treatment lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one mo ...

.) It was based at Park Place and opened in either 1791 or 1793. It became known as the Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital in 1846. In 1879, using funds collected to commemorate Sir James Young Simpson's contribution to

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a su ...

, a purpose-built

was opened in Edinburgh, to provide a facility where the poor could access medical supervision for childbirth. It was named the Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson Memorial Hospital. The Married Women's Pavilion, which was located in the west wing under the original plans by architects MacGibbon and Ross, had to be postponed in 1879 due to insufficient funds. It was eventually opened by Lady Candida Louise Hay, 10th Marchioness of Tweeddale in 1895. By 1910, the capacity of the facility was under strain, and following the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the hospital expanded into several flats in nearby Lauriston Park and Graham Street to cope with increased demand. Britain's first ante-natal clinic began at this site in 1915, to be followed, in 1926, by a post-natal clinic when the facility amalgamated with the

. The new Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion, which was designed by Thomas W. Turnbull in the classical style, opened in 1939. The initial provisions of the hospital consisted of two lying–in wards, a labour ward, a dispensary, kitchens and administrative quarters, as well as quarters for the matron, two house surgeons and seven or eight nurses. The facility was directly managed by the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, within a grouping of hospitals that would become the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh National Health Service Trust in 1994. After services transferred to the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health at the

's new site in

, the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion closed in March 2002.

Notable births

* Actor

Sean Connery Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to Portrayal of James Bond in film, portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in motion pic ...

- 25 August 1930. * The Beatles' original bassist

Stuart Sutcliffe Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe (23 June 1940 – 10 April 1962) was a British painter and musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a pa ...

- 23 June 1940. * Scottish Conservative leader

Ruth Davidson Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, (born 10 November 1978), is a Scottish politician. A member of the House of Lords since 2021, she was Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the S ...

- 10 November 1978.

References

{{authority control 1791 establishments in Scotland 2002 disestablishments in Scotland Hospitals established in 1791 Hospitals in Edinburgh Maternity hospitals in the United Kingdom Defunct hospitals in Scotland Sean Connery

History

Notable births

See also

References