**• Former auxiliary nurses Wanda Orchard and Henny Gofton with Gillian Cassidy (centre)**

December 21, 2022

By Daisy Baker

As the family tale goes, the moment newborn Gillian Worker was passed into her father Herbie’s arms on September 17, 1972, she cried but perhaps more memorable than that was the fact it was the first baby’s cry to echo down the corridor of Scottsdale’s new maternity ward.

Born at 3pm, weighing 6 pounds 14 ounces, Gillian was the first baby born in the new North-Eastern Soldiers Memorial Hospital (NESMH).

Patients were transferred from the old neighbouring hospital into the new $1million building on September 12, 1972.

As reported in the North-Eastern Advertiser at the time, the building was officially opened on October 21 by Minister for Health Dr A.H Foster before a crowd of 400 people.

Gillian’s mum Sandra Worker said with a few false alarms, it was unclear if she would be the first woman to birth in the new facility.

“Gillian wanted to come, then she didn’t want to come,” she said.

“There was a bit of a toss-up between me and another woman, Chris Hughson she had a son Drew who came a few days later.

“I presented [at the old hospital] and then they told me to go home and come back when they’d moved into the new hospital.”

Mrs Worker said there were notable improvements in the facilities available between the two hospitals, from when she birthed her son Allan in the old section in December 1970.

“They had a lot more modern equipment when I went back to have Gillian and they had a bath so you could get in and have a hot bath,” she said.

“When we were there, we had our own private room and the baby usually stayed in the ward with us and then they took the baby and put it in the nursery at night-time.

“On the day Gillian was born, I was talking to my mother on the phone at 2.30pm and the nurse came in and said the doctor wanted to see me.

“I called her back at 3pm told her I’d had a baby girl and she didn’t believe me,” she laughed.

Mrs Worker said Dr Cawthorn was the doctor on the ward that day but he went ‘skipping off’ to get engaged so wasn’t there for Gillian’s birth but matron of the time Maureen Nichols attended.

Mrs Worker was given the choice of a commemorative egg cup and spoon with Gillian’s name and birthday on it, or a bottle of champagne to mark the occasion.

She chose the former and the keepsake has stood the test of time and is still in its original box.

Walking in the main entrance of the hospital, the nursery was located at the very end of the corridor and the nurses’ station was off to the left.

Maureen Nichols started as a midwife at the NESMH when she was 22 going on 23 in 1970.

After completing her training at the Launceston General Hospital, she spent 12 months working in Perth, Western Australia, before completing her obstetrics qualifications in Hobart and then returning to her hometown of Scottsdale.

She said she has fond memories of her years working in the maternity ward.

“We used to have quite a lot of deliveries. I think when I first came it was around 100 deliveries a year, but they slowly reduced over the years as more people started to go to Launceston for deliveries,” she said.

“It was always a joy to be part of the birth of a baby. Delivering babies is a very happy time.

“It’s nice to be part of the birth of babies and midwifery was probably one of my favourite areas.”

Mrs Nichols worked at the NESMH for a total of 39 years, 24 years of which she was the director of nursing and 10 of which she was also the manager.

She said moving into the new hospital was an exciting time for the staff and the wider community.

“The new maternity ward was so much more modern. The new hospital had single rooms and they all had ensuites,” she said.

“For the time, the new hospital was very modern. We had some two bed wards. There were 33 beds when we moved in.

“We thought we were pretty well up with it and it really was, especially the single wards, it was a big jump from the old place to the new place.”

Mrs Nichols said coming to a rural hospital was a quick and steep learning curve but the community connection was unlike anything she had experienced before.

“It was a lovely little hospital and the whole community cared for the hospital. The auxiliary was very hard working and raised funds,” she said.

“The big difference between here and where I’d worked previously was that the community really cared about the hospital and it was as if it belonged to the community and they were so much part of the hospital.

“People donated to the hospital very generously, wanting to have the very best of everything for their hospital.”

Among other staff of the era were Beulah Dunkley, Joy Ball, Nelly Taylor, Hope Unwin, Val Auton, Joan Chugg, Dawn Targett, Henny Gofton, Wanda Orchard, Dr Rainer, Dr Younger and Dr North.

Mrs Gofton and Mrs Orchard were both auxiliary nurses who lived together in the nurses’ home, which is still standing today, near the hospital.

Mrs Gofton started in 1960 and left in 1962 after she got married but then returned in 1979 for around seven years.

Mrs Orchard started in 1959 at age 16, and after spent several years at home raising a young family she later returned, working in the James Scott Wing and the Day Centre until her retirement.

“As auxiliary nurses, we did everything like the nurses – theatre, labour ward, everything,” Mrs Gofton said.

“The sisters were there and we would have a ward with about 10 patients and you’d look after them all between two nurses.

“When you were on nightshift there was only you and the sister that was in charge and you did everything. We used to bath the patients, we’d have to sterilise all the pans, bottles and syringes, we did the lot.

“We were even allowed to give out the medicine, just like the sisters but we weren’t paid like them,” she laughed.

Mrs Gofton said no husbands were allowed into the labour ward of the old NESMH and the same protocols were followed in the early years of the new hospital.

“They dropped the women off at the door. I know when I had my first child, I wasn’t 21 and Larry had to sign me in because I wasn’t old enough to sign myself in,” she said.

“Then he went home to cut ferns.

“The men weren’t allowed to stay and go into the labour ward in the old hospital and they didn’t for a start in the new hospital either but they gradually changed and the men were allowed to sit in the sitting room.

“In the old hospital you had your child and then they would ring the husband up and tell them the baby had been born and they were allowed to come when it was visiting hours from 3pm,” she said.

Back in those days women would stay 10 days for their first child and seven for their second.

“And our bubs were taken off us and put in the nursery and we didn’t get our paws on them until it was feed time,” Mrs Orchard added.

“The nurses would bring them back in when it was time for a feed.”

Mrs Cassidy (nee Worker) said by the time she had her three children in the 1990s, fathers could attend births and she had her babies with her on the ward.

The maternity ward in the NESMH was decommissioned in 2015 due to more women opting to birth at the Queen Victoria Maternity Unit in Launceston and staffing changes.

In the final year of operation, there were just 15 babies born at the NESMH.

There were more than 2,600 babies born at the NESMH between 1972 and 2015, and in that time, there were three sets of twins.

The last baby born at the facility was Joe Bellchambers, on February 10, 2015.

While babies can no longer be born at the facility, the NESMH still offers a fortnightly outreach clinic where local low-risk women can see a midwife for their antenatal care.

There is also an extended midwifery outreach service after available for new mothers at home, two weeks after delivery.

Having celebrated their centenary last year, the NESMH continues to offer quality care to local residents and is a valued asset for the community.

First cry a moment in history

December 21, 2022