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Victoria - Archival Series

Labour Ward Case Books and Registers (1916 - 1967)

From
1916
To
1967
Website
https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/VPRS17820/about
Reference No
VPRS 17820/P0001
Legal Status
Public Record Office Victoria registration number

Labour Ward Case Books and Registers is an archival series held by the Department of Health and Human Services. These records were transferred from the Salvation Army to the Victorian government at some point following the closure of The Haven.

Details

Access Conditions

Conditional Access - Care leavers (and their families) wanting to find information about their time in care, or access personal files can contact the Care Leaver Records Service.

Records

The Labour Ward Case Books record details of mothers who gave birth to a child at The Haven between 1916 and 1967. The Registers include the name of mother, marital status, age, time and date of labour, presentation of the infant (e.g.: breech, vertex), the date the child was born, sex, delivery (e.g.: normal, forceps), weight at birth, date of discharge, progress after labour and antenatal and postnatal clinical details.

Records in the Labour Ward Case Books end in 1967, when the hospital section of The Haven closed. After 1967, mothers were taken to the Royal Women's Hospital to have their babies.

Entries are arranged in chronological order by date of admission and by a registration number allocated to each new admission. To locate an entry, it is necessary to know a person's birth date.

There are 6 volumes of records dating from 1916 to 1967. There are no records for the period from May 1922 to December 1927. The whereabouts of the register for this period is not known.

Publications

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: 'The Haven Foundling Home & Refuge (1897 - 1988)', in Finding Records, Department of Health and Human Services, State of Victoria, https://www.findingrecords.dhhs.vic.gov.au/collectionresultspage/TheHaven.

Prepared by: Cate O'Neill