Care during pregnancy and postpartum

Knowing how to care for women, before during and after delivery was a fundamental skill which the future midwives needed to learn during their training. Santa Cristina was conceived, basically, to assist poor women but its design also included rooms for women who could pay their stay and treatment and they were called “pensioners”. The admittance of wealthy women contributed to a better financial management of the centre. Even so, the number of pensioners admitted could never exceed one third of the beds so as not to distort the founding objectives of the centre. Poor women were admitted free of charge, but had to work to help maintain the institution, carrying out different domestic tasks like stitching clothes.

There were several kinds of pensioners, depending on the kind of lodging: first class, who had their own, private room and paid 1,000 pesetas on admittance and 50 pesetas per day; they were the only ones with a room to themselves. Second class pensioners paid 500 pesetas on admittance and 25 pesetas a day, and third class pensioners -100 pesetas on admittance and 10 pesetas a day. The humblest group, fourth class pensioners, paid 50 pesetas on admittance and 6 pesetas per day. In addition, each class of pensioners had to pay the same amount as their admittance fee to cover the costs of medication, material and clinical assistance. The postpartum and pensioners´ rooms were on the first floor of the building, and pregnant women had rooms on the second floor.