ABSTRACT

Baragwanath Hospital now serves the large city of Soweto, but this improvement in hospitalisation, paralleled by better prenatal care and improved living conditions and services for the community, were overwhelmed by the population growth. The hospital opened in mid-1948 in emergency buildings vacated by the British Army. It had no provision for midwifery or 'at risk' newborn infants, but as soon as the hospital opened it was inundated with obstetric emergencies which could not be turned away. This impasse was met by the impromptu conversion of one large open ward into 'delivery' and 'lying-in' areas. The number of patients grew rapidly and in its third year of operation nearly 3,500 deliveries were conducted, using six delivery and twelve lying-in beds. Operative cases were done in the general surgery theatre. Infants in need of special treatment were, like the rest, 'roomed in' at their mothers' bedside, cared for and fed by them and sent home with them after a day or two when usually still in need.