The University of Alberta Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology was formally established in 1922. The first chair was Dr. Leighton C. Conn.
Gynecological patients were admitted and treated at the University Hospital, also known as the Strathcona Hospital, which had no obstetrical service. Obstetrical patients were admitted to the Misericordia Hospital. Outpatients were seen in the “Old Potter House” in downtown Edmonton, on 103 Avenue between 99 and 100 Streets.
Dr. J. Ross Vant, who later succeeded Dr. Conn as chair, wrote:
During my tenure as Resident (June 1929 - June 1930), the Gynaecology service consisted of six public wards, two semiprivate and one private bed. We competed with the other services for extra beds and for space in the two major operating theatres and the one minor theatre. This situation existed when I returned from Montreal and Europe in September 1932 to join Dr. L. C. Conn, the first Director, and Drs. J. O. Baker and Allan Day, on the hospital attending staff.
Start of obstetrical service
The University Hospital got into the obstetrics business in 1933. Again from Dr. Vant’s recollections:
In September 1933, the children were all moved into the "Provincial Special Unit". The vacated Children’s Unit was converted to an Obstetrical Unit, containing twelve public beds on one side, and eight small cubicles and two sun parlor beds on the other side. There was one delivery room, two labour beds, and a single nursery. There were two wash basins and one toilet on each side. The installation of "the most moderate equipment" was made possible by a gift of $1,167.28 from the Ladies Auxiliary of the Strathcona Hospital.
The presence of an obstetrical service brought an increase in gynecological admissions, and new facilities were provided to accommodate this. The gynecology unit had 56 beds (including one private room) and was shared with Urology. Subsequently, the obstetrical unit was increased with the addition of “premature and isolation cubicles.” There was even “a doctor’s room and a student’s room.”
The obstetrical service, though growing, remained quite small. There were 500 to 700 deliveries per year with a Cesarean-section rate of 1.6 per cent. The maternal death rate was five per 1,000, mostly due to hemorrhage, sepsis and pre-eclampsia. As an indication of the major changes occurring in medicine at this time, Dr. Vant comments:
Since we had started to perform lower segment sections in 1936, commenced the use of sulphonamides in 1938, penicillin in limited doses in 1941, in increasing doses in 1942 and 1943, and the broader spectrum antibiotics in the succeeding years, this added facility increased our defense and attack against puerperal fever and the allied infections.
Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, Dr. Vant comments on a new government initiative – a symbol of Canada’s emerging embrace of social democracy:
On April 1, 1944, the provincial government granted 12 days free public ward hospital care to those pregnant women achieving a viable gestation. This bonus increased our need acutely for semiprivate and private beds.
With sweeping changes in clinical practice, there was a change in leadership. In the very gentlemanly words of Dr. Vant:
On December 22, 1941, Dr. L. C. Conn died; and our department was bereft of a dynamic force, a kindly counselor and a gracious gentleman. It became my privilege to succeed him.