{{for|the hospital in Western Australian formerly of that name|Edward Millen Home}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox hospital | name = Rotunda Hospital | org_group = [[Health Service Executive]] - [[RCSI Hospitals]] | logo = <!-- optional --> | logo_size = | image = Rotunda Hospital.jpg | caption = Rotunda Hospital frontage on [[Parnell Street]] | coordinates = {{Coord|53.3526|-6.2626|region:IE-D_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | location = | address = Parnell Square East, Rotunda, D01 P5W9 | region = [[Dublin]] | state = | country = Ireland | healthcare = [[Health Service Executive|HSE]] | funding = | patron = [[Bartholomew Mosse]] | type = Specialist | speciality = Maternity hospital | affiliation = [[Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]]<br />[[Dublin City University]] | emergency = | beds = | founded = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1745}} | closed = <!-- optional --> | website = | former_names = Dublin Lying-In Hospital | pushpin_map = Ireland Central Dublin | pushpin_map_caption = Shown in Dublin }} The '''Rotunda Hospital''' ({{langx|ga|Ospidéal an Rotunda}};<ref>{{cite web |title=Ospidéal an Rotunda |url=https://www.tearma.ie/q/Ospid%C3%A9al%20an%20Rotunda/ |website=[[téarma.ie]] |access-date=15 May 2020}}</ref> legally the '''Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin''')<ref>{{cite web |title=S.I. No. 329/1999 - Freedom of Information Act, 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations, 1999. |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1999/si/329/made/en/print |website=electronic Irish Statute Book |access-date=15 May 2020 |pages=First Schedule, No.30 |no-pp=y |language=en}}</ref> is a [[maternity hospital]] on [[Parnell Street]] in [[Dublin]], Ireland, now managed by [[RCSI Hospitals]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imt.ie/news/six-hospital-groups-most-fundamental-reform-in-decades-14-05-2013/|title=Six hospital groups 'most fundamental reform in decades'|date=14 May 2013|publisher=Irish Medical Times|access-date=27 May 2019}}</ref> The Rotunda entertainment buildings in [[Parnell Square]] are no longer part of the hospital complex.
==History== ===George's Lane=== [[File:Dublin Lying-in-Hospital. Wellcome L0002825.jpg|thumb|The original lying-in hospital at 59 South Great George's Street.]] [[File:Facing South Great George's Street from Fade Street.jpg|thumb|Facing towards the former hospital on South Great George's Street from Fade Street c1893]] [[File:Views of the most remarkable public buildings, monuments and other edifices in the city of Dublin (1780) (14772921285).jpg|thumb|right|The Rotunda Hospital in 1780]] [[File:Back of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.jpg|thumb|right|Back of the hospital, showing tennis courts. ca. 1890s]] [[File:Rotunda Hospital sign.jpg|thumb|Sign on the Rotunda hospital, with a [[neon light]] image of a [[stork]]]] The hospital was founded by [[Bartholomew Mosse]], a surgeon and [[midwife]] who was appalled at the conditions that pregnant women had to endure, in [[George's Lane, Dublin|George's Lane]] in March 1745.<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 7</ref> It was granted by royal charter on 2 December 1756 by [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rotunda.ie/rotunda-pdfs/The%20Rotunda%20Charter%20Booklet.pdf |title=The Rotunda Charter Booklet|access-date=6 January 2020}}</ref> [[Lying-in]] is an archaic term for childbirth (referring to the month-long [[bed rest]] prescribed for [[postpartum confinement]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7129/pg7129-images.html |title=The Prospective Mother: A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy|first=J. Morris|last=Slemons|author-link=J. Morris Slemons|year=1912}}</ref> The venture was very successful and Mosse raised money through concerts, exhibitions and even a lottery to establish larger premises.<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 25</ref>
===New Gardens (Parnell Square)=== The foundation stone of the new hospital was laid on 24 May 1751 on the site of the New Gardens on current day [[Parnell Square]]. The hospital moved to its current premises in 1757, designed by [[Richard Cassels]],<ref name=arch>{{cite web |url=https://www.archiseek.com/1748-rotunda-hospital-parnell-square-dublin/ |title=Rotunda Hospital |work=Architecture Of Dublin |publisher=Archiseek.com |access-date=2008-06-11 }}</ref> where it became known as "The New Lying-In Hospital".<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 35</ref> The [[Church of Ireland]] chapel was opened in 1762.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grassrootsgaa.ie/rotunda-pdfs/chronological_History_of_The_Rotunda_Hospital.pdf |title=Chronological History of the Rotunda Hospital|access-date=6 January 2020}}</ref> Open to the public, it provided a healthy income to the hospital annually, Dr. Mosse successfully encouraging wealthy Protestant Dubliners to attend service there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_heroes/hist_hero_mosse.html |title= History: Heroes: Bartholomew Mosse|website=www.turtlebunbury.com|access-date=6 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newstalk.com/newstalk-breakfast/hidden-histories-wturtle-bunbury-bartholomew-mosse-and-the-rotunda-717356 |title=Bartholomew Mosse and the Rotunda|publisher= Newstalk|access-date=6 January 2020}}</ref>
Records indicate that around 1781, "when the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease; and that after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same, in five succeeding years, was reduced to one in twenty".<ref name="Hydropathy8thed">{{cite book| title=Hydropathy; or The Cold Water Cure, as practiced by Vincent Priessnitz, at Graefenberg, Silesia, Austria. |url=https://archive.org/details/hydropathyorcol00clargoog|last=Claridge|first=Capt. R.T.|author-link=R. T. Claridge| edition=8th |year=1843| publisher=James Madden and Co|location=London| page=[https://archive.org/details/hydropathyorcol00clargoog/page/n49 37]|access-date=2009-10-29}} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org).</ref> This issue was not limited to the Lying-In-Hospital. In that era, ventilation improvement was a general issue in patient care,<ref name="Nightingaleonline">{{cite book| last= Nightingale| first= Florence|author-link=Florence Nightingale |title=Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not|year=1860| publisher=William Carter| location=Boston | url=https://archive.org/details/notesonnursingwh00nigh|access-date=2009-10-24}} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)</ref> along with other issues of sanitation and hygiene, and the conditions in which surgeons such as [[Robert Liston]] in Britain and elsewhere, had to operate.<ref name="GordononMotherhood">{{cite book| title=Great Medical Disasters| last= Gordon| first= Richard |author-link=Richard Gordon (English author) | chapter=Disastrous Motherhood: Tales from the Vienna Wards | year= 1983| publisher= Hutchinson & Co.| location= London |pages=43–46}} p.43</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Holmes, O.W. |author-link=Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.|title=On the contagiousness of puerperal fever |journal=New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine. |volume=i |pages=503–30 |date=March 1842}} in Gordon, R. (1983), p.147.</ref> [[Florence Nightingale]] famously worked on the design of safe and healthy hospitals.<ref name="Nightingaleonline"/>
The first [[caesarean section]] in Ireland was undertaken at the hospital in 1889.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/new-rte-series-delves-behind-scenes-worlds-longest-running-maternity-hospital-dublin-159704|title=New RTE series delves behind the scenes at world's longest running maternity hospital in Dublin|date=13 September 2018|publisher=Irish Post|access-date=6 May 2019}}</ref>
==<!-- linked from lede; redirected from [[Rotunda, Dublin]]-->Rotunda== The eponymous '''Rotunda''', designed by James Ensor,<ref name=arch/> was completed just in time for a reception hosted by [[James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster|James FitzGerald, Marquess of Kildare]] in October 1767.<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 68</ref>
The extensive '''Rotunda Rooms''', designed by Richard Johnston and built adjacent to the rotunda, were completed in 1791.<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 104</ref> By the early 19th century the hospital had become known as the Rotunda Hospital, after its most prominent architectural feature.<ref>Kirkpatrick, p. 198</ref> The Rotunda became a theatre, where the [[Irish Volunteers]]' first public meeting was held in 1913, and later housed the Ambassador Cinema. The Rotunda Rooms now house the [[Gate Theatre]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dublincity.ie/story/90-years-gate-theatre|title=90 Years of The Gate Theatre {{!}} Dublin City Council|website=www.dublincity.ie|language=en|access-date=2018-06-28}}</ref>
==Architecture== Patrick Wyse Jackson, curator of the Geological Museum in [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College]], assessed the building in 1993 as part of his book ''"The Building Stones of Dublin: A Walking Guide"'' with the following remarks: :'' "The walls of the current building dating from 1757 are faced with Leinster [[granite]] and Kilgobbin granite... The former building was executed in [[Portland stone]] and Leinster granite, to which a sculptured [[frieze]] of [[Bucranium|ox head]]s and other panels were added. These are interesting as they are made of [[Coade stone]], a fashionable artificial stone used widely in the late 1700s."''{{sfn|Wyse Jackson|1993|page=45}} The Rotunda or "round room", and the buildings now occupied by the [[Gate Theatre]] were later additions.{{sfn|Wyse Jackson|1993|page=45}}
==Services== The Rotunda Hospital, as both a maternity hospital and also as a training centre (affiliated with [[Trinity College Dublin]])<ref name="tcd">{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/Maps/rotunda.html|title=Trinity College Campus Maps:-Rotunda|publisher=University Of Dublin, Trinity College|access-date=2008-06-11}}</ref> is notable for having provided continuous service to mothers and babies since inception, making it the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/the-rotunda-behind-the-scenes-at-the-world-s-oldest-maternity-hospital-1.3628691|date=14 September 2018|publisher=Irish Times|title=The Rotunda: Behind the scenes at the world's oldest maternity hospital|access-date=6 May 2019}}</ref> In 2025, the total number of babies born at the hospital increased to more than 900,000 since it opened its doors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0101/1488705-new-year-babies/|title=Delight as first babies of the New Year arrive|date=1 January 2025|via=www.rte.ie}}</ref>
==Criticism== In 2000 the Rotunda Hospital was one of two Dublin maternity hospitals found to have illegally retained organ tissue from babies without parental consent. The tissue removed in post-mortem examinations was retained for some years. The Rotunda hospital admitted that permission should have been sought for this process to be allowed to take place.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2000-02-29|title=Rotunda and Holles Street kept babies' organ tissue|url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0229/5816-organs/|language=en}}</ref>
A medical negligence award was approved in 2020 for a young boy who developed [[cerebral palsy]] as a result of complications with his delivery at the hospital in 2004.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-02-12|title=Boy gets €3m over birth brain injuries|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20381463.html|access-date=2020-10-30|website=Irish Examiner|language=en}}</ref>
==See also== *[[General Lying-In Hospital]], London
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bookofrotundahos00kirk/page/n8 |title=The Book of the Rotunda Hospital|year=1913|last=Kirkpatrick|first=T. Percy C.|publisher=Adlard & Son, Bartholomew Press}} * {{cite book |last=Wyse Jackson |first=Patrick |title= The Building Stones of Dublin: A Walking Guide |url= https://archive.org/details/buildingstonesof0000wyse/mode/2up|year=1993 |publisher= Town House and Country House |location=Donnybrook, Dublin |isbn=0-946172-32-3}} {{refend}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Rotunda Hospital, Dublin}} *{{Official website|https://rotunda.ie/}} {{Irish hospitals}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:1745 establishments in Ireland]] [[Category:Teaching hospitals in Dublin (city)]] [[Category:Teaching hospitals of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]] [[Category:Teaching hospitals of the University of Dublin, Trinity College]] [[Category:Rotundas in Europe]] [[Category:Hospitals established in the 1740s]] [[Category:Parnell Square]] [[Category:Physicians of the Rotunda Hospital| ]] [[Category:Health Service Executive hospitals]] [[Category:Richard Cassels buildings]] [[Category:Maternity hospitals]] [[Category:Georgian architecture in Dublin (city)]]