Vera Ellis-Crowther

Ellis-Crowther was born as Vera Jane Hodgson in Liverpool, England, on 27 August 1897.[1] In 1924, Ellis-Crowther immigrated to New Zealand with her husband.[2] Her husband had trained as a chemist, but when they arrived in New Zealand they worked on farms in Te Aroha, and later bought a 300 acre sharemilking farm at Maramarua.[3] Her husband died in a truck accident in 1932, leading Ellis-Crowther to buy an orchard in Glen Eden, West Auckland.[2][3] She retrained as a nurse and midwife at St Helens Hospital.[2] While working at Huia Obstetric Hospital, Ellis-Crowther was inspired to move to Rawene, to work with a doctor who gave a talk on the use of Nembutal, an anaesthetic used in childbirth.[2][1]

In 1938, Ellis-Crowther wrote an article in feminist magazine Woman To-day, arguing that the use of pain relief during childbirth was a human right.[4][5] She believed that access to universal pain relief and maternity services were a class issue.[6] Ellis-Crowther's views on anaesthetics were opposed by Grantly Dick-Read and other male doctors, who were advocating for anaesthesia-free natural childbirth.[4]

Ellis-Crowther opened the Waitemata Obstetric Hospital on her land at Glen Eden in 1945.[2] The hospital building was not ready at the time of opening, so Ellis-Crowther operated out of disused railway carriages.[3] She sold the hospital in 1954,[2] and after living in England for a period, returned to Auckland to work as a midwife.[1]

Later in life, Ellis-Crowther became a convert to the home birth movement. In the 1970s, she was the only midwive who offered home-birth services.[7] When she began to retire in the 1970s, Ellis-Crowther convinced midwives Joan Donley and Carolyn Young to leave hospitals and take over from her, to continue providing home birth services.[8] When Ellis-Crowther retired as a midwife in 1974, at age 79, she had delivered over 1,000 home birth babies.[2][7] Ellis-Crowther died on 6 July 1983 in Auckland.[1]

Ellis-Crowther married Harry Linton Crowther in England in 1923. Their only daughter Joan was born on 2 May 1929 at Te Aroha.[1] She married her second husband, David Ellis, in December 1941.[1] She joined the Communist Party of New Zealand in the 1920s.[6]

• Bryder, Linda (2014). The Rise and Fall of National Women's Hospital: A History. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869408091.
• Reidy, Jade (2009). "Looking After Ourselves". In Macdonald, Finlay; Kerr, Ruth (eds.). West: The History of Waitakere. Random House. pp. 157–178. ISBN 9781869790080.