The Lying-in Department, Destitute Asylum, Adelaide One-Place Study

The aim of this One-Place Study is to investigate the Lying-in Department, which formed part of the Destitute Asylum in Adelaide, South Australia (SA), and was operational from 1878 to 1918. The main focus is on the female occupants who received lying-in relief and their infants. Situated on Kintore Avenue on the western perimeter of the Destitute Asylum site, which itself was located just off North Terrace bordering the city of Adelaide, the Lying-in Department provided professional midwifery, refuge and accommodation for nearly 2,000 pregnant, destitute, mostly unmarried, women. Confirmed as a State Heritage Place in the SA Heritage Register in 1986, the Lying-in Department is only one of a handful of Destitute Asylum buildings that survive in Adelaide today.

Data collection for this study is in two parts. A dataset is currently under construction using the Destitute Asylum Admissions Registers and Registers of Infants born in the Destitute Asylum. This data will be analysed to generate a statistical overview of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the women. Multiple case studies using genealogical research methods and sources are being compiled for a sample of women. These will be used to explore in-depth the factors that influenced the women’s destitute, pregnant circumstances and subsequent admissions to the Destitute Asylum, and to find out what became of them and their babies once they left.

The findings will be published via print and internet media, and publicly disseminated. The dataset will be used to construct an online resource for genealogists and family historians.

Definition of lying-in: the time before, during and shortly after childbirth.