The hospital treated children under age 5 regardless of race, religion, or ability to pay.

 

Bertha Wright, a nurse and co-founder, understood that educating women about pregnancy and childbirth would result in healthier mothers and babies. Her early clinic had less than a 7 percent mortality rate compared to mortality rates that were anywhere from 12 to 20 percent elsewhere.

 

Wright also pioneered a birthing experience that cost about 25 percent less than the standard midwife. At a time when female doctors were a rarity, the hospital had female doctors on staff in 1922. (Harvard Medical School didn’t even admit women until 1945.) The Hospital was also one of the first on the west coast to have an African-American doctor on staff. The hospital remained at the forefront of providing care to all, treating the influx of immigrants to the area in the 30’s and 40’s as well as delivering and treating unmarried pregnant women.