VPRS 17483 Midwifery Department Discharge Book

This Discharge Book recorded the details of patients prior to their discharge from the Midwifery Department. The patients were either transferred to an Infirmary Department ward or allowed to go home. Since 1888, the Midwifery Department was housed in a separate building to the Infirmary, with their own dedicated medical staff to stop cross infection of patients.Newborn babies were also recorded in the Discharge Book. The babies were transferred to the Children's Hospital for further treatment, or discharged without their mother to babies' homes prior to adoption.Each patient's details were recorded in a single page column format and the entries were arranged according to date of discharge. The column headings comprise: Surname; Christian Name; Date of Discharge; M. or S. (Married or Single); Male or Female (has acronyms L.M. - Live Male, L.F. - Live Female, S.B.F. - Still Born Female, S.B.M. - Still Born Male, L.W.A - Labour Ward Annexe and L.S.A. unknown,); Address (both the home address of the patient or the adoption agency for the babies).Hospital staff were not strict in their observance of the column headings; the details were not always entered in the correct place and are full of acronyms, some of which are no longer understood.When mothers or babies were transferred internally e.g. Infirmary or Prem Room, this was detailed in both the Male or Female column and Address columns. The latter column recorded the destination of adult patients and sometimes unaccompanied infants.Series HistoryPrior to transfer to Public Record Office Victoria, the records in this series were maintained as part of the RWH Archives in RWH series number 0405.

本出院登记簿记录了助产科患者出院前的详细信息。患者出院后要么转至医务室病房，要么准予回家。自1888年起，助产科与医务室分设独立楼宇，并配备专属医护人员，以防止患者间发生交叉感染。

新生儿信息同样收录于该出院登记簿中。这些新生儿要么被转至儿童医院接受后续诊疗，要么在被收养前由婴儿之家接收并脱离母亲单独出院。

每位患者的信息以单页栏目格式记录，条目按出院日期排序。栏目标题包括：姓氏；教名；出院日期；婚否（M.或S.，即已婚或未婚）；性别（含缩写：L.M.（活产男婴，Live Male）、L.F.（活产女婴，Live Female）、S.B.F.（死产女婴，Still Born Female）、S.B.M.（死产男婴，Still Born Male）、L.W.A.（分娩科附属病房，Labour Ward Annexe）、L.S.A.（含义不明））；住址（患者的家庭住址或新生儿的收养机构地址）。

医院工作人员未严格遵守栏目填写规范，信息常未录入至对应栏位，且充斥大量缩写，部分缩写现已无法辨识。

当产妇或新生儿被院内转科（如转至医务室或早产病房）时，相关信息会同时记录于性别栏与住址栏中。住址栏用于记录成年患者的转归地点，有时也会记录无陪护婴儿的去向。

【档案系列沿革】
在移交至维多利亚公共档案馆（Public Record Office Victoria）前，本系列档案曾作为皇家妇女医院（Royal Women's Hospital，RWH）档案的一部分，原系列编号为0405。