St Anne's Maternity Home

St Anne’s Maternity Home was run by the Sisters of Mercy from around 1958 in the Perth suburb of Mount Lawley. During this time St Anne’s was referred to as both a Hospital and a Home, with the terms being used interchangably. Many babies were adopted from St Anne’s in this period. In 1982 the Home was officially renamed St Anne’s Mercy Hospital.

One former patient described St Anne’s in a submission to the Western Australian government Inquiry into past forced adoptive policies and practices: “I lived in a shared room with [another resident]. We made baby blankets and nighties for the nursery. There was a lounge area where we would sit of an evening and lovely gardens to walk around. I don’t remember being given any counselling. I also don’t remember having any visitors although my sister says she remembers coming to see me” (submission 52, p.77).

St Anne’s Maternity Home was mentioned in the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices Report (2012) as an institution that was involved in forced adoption. The hospital offered an organisational apology in Perth in March 2010 (Senate, 2012, p.199).

A woman who was at the hospital in 1967 stated that at St Anne’s “I had been conditioned and constantly told that the baby wasn’t mine” (submission 52, p.79).

The 2024 report of the WA government’s forced adoptive policies and practices inquiry contained a finding that “Women at institutions operated by the Sisters of Mercy including St Margaret’s Hostel, the Catherine McAuley Centre, and St Anne’s Maternity Home were made to perform unpaid labour, which included caring for children who were not their own (p.258). It also found that St Anne’s arranged adoptions in the 20th century.

One submission to the WA inquiry described how a staff member at St Anne’s treated her as a single woman:

The day came when I was admitted to St. Anne’s to be induced. I really had no idea what was going on. I just did as I was told. A seemingly kind nun was escorting me to a ward. She had her arm around my shoulder and said, “You are such a tiny little thing. Is your husband very big?” “I don’t have a husband,” I replied. She immediately removed her arm and her manner towards me changed completely (submission 7, quoted on p.259).