Story 20: Opening of the Childbirth Program with Dr. Rosenkrantz

The Birth of the QCH Childbirth Program

• Video Transcript

  Speaker: Dr. Lisa Rosenkrantz (Family Doctor) 

  Lisa Rosenkrantz:

  The Grace was closed and the Queensway took up the torch and said, "We'll add a childbirth unit to our hospital," which is exactly what they did. The photographer was like back here and I was here in my nice blue dress. And people were excited to have this new facility. 

  [Intro MUSIC]

  It was a time of great stress as different hospitals lobbied to keep themselves open, especially when the government wanted to close hospitals. And the community hospitals were the Riverside, the Montfort, the Queensway Carleton Hospital and the Grace Hospital. The end result was that the Montfort got to keep open because of its francophone community. The Riverside was changed from a inpatient hospital with an emergency department to an ambulatory care hospital. The Grace was closed and part of the closing meant that their obstetrics unit was going to be closed and the Queensway took up the torch and said we'll add a childbirth unit to our hospital which is exactly what they did. Most people were very attached to their hospital, especially the people at the Grace who felt that they had a great culture, which they did, especially in the birth unit and the nursery and the maternity care unit. But what we got to do was help with the design of the childbirth unit at the Queensway. One of the things we did was to make the birthing room more friendly was hide equipment behind doors, try to have more comfortable chairs. We were excited to know that we could put in bathtubs, which was awesome and continues to be awesome. And patients would labor on their own, where is whereas before patients often had to labor in rooms and then had to be taken to the delivery room, a separate part of the maternity ward. But now they birth here. Their babies are kept with them, not whisked away. The other thing that happened was that the operating room was necessary to be more central rather than being at the end of a hall. One of the things that the Grace brought with it was people. The Grace had a reputation for having a fantastic culture of support for patient care and patient focused care by the nurses and the staff. What really struck out for me when they first came was the clerks also came that were interested in helping the Queensway Carleton Hospital be a success and to support the nurses that came over. That culture of caring passed down through the nurses that are presently working now. And I love working at the birth unit because of that very positive culture, positive environment for patients, emphasis on safety, teamwork, and it's just a fantastic place to work. So the 25 years that the birth unit has been open, it's developed, it's changed, but the basic core of the birth unit that came from the Grace still exists. But the Queensway Carleton is making its own legacy as a fantastic community hospital to have a baby. 

  [Outro music]

Dr. Lisa Rosenkrantz reflects on a time of major regional hospital changes that led to QCH opening its birth unit. Grace Hospital closed in 1999, but the Grace Hospital Birth Unit found a new home at QCH, where the QCH Childbirth Program opened later that same year.

The 1977 March rally at the Ottawa Civic Centre to save Montfort Hospital from closure. Amidst the hospital restructuring in the region, Montfort Hospital started the “SOS Montfort” campaign to save its hospital. Montfort along with the Grace Hospital were on the list for potential hospital closures in the region. 

The Grace Hospital closed in 1999 then rebuilt in 2002 as the Salvation Army Grace Manor Long Term Care.

Dr. Rosenkrantz also takes us on a tour of QCH's Childbirth Unit, showing how obstetricians, family doctors, and nurses from Grace, who transferred to QCH, helped design the space. While Grace’s culture continues, QCH has built its own strong legacy in maternity care.