A clean front passage: dirt, douches and disinfectants at St Helens Hospital, Wellington, New Zealand, 1907–1922

In response to a growing concern about New Zealand’s maternal and infant mortality rates at the beginning of the twentieth century, the 1904 Midwives Act established formal midwifery training and registration, and enabled the setting up of St Helens hospitals throughout New Zealand. These hospitals trained midwives and provided a state maternity service, delivered primarily by midwives, for working-class married women whose husbands earned less than £3 a week.