Origins of institutional Pediatrics: Maternity and Childhood Hospital of Mexico City in the nineteenth century

In June of 1866, the Empress Carlota founded the Maternity House in the Department of Secret Births at the Hospice of the Poor. Upon the reinstatement of a republican government, Dr. Ramon Pacheco was appointed as director of the Maternity House. Shortly after, in February of 1868, Dr. Luis Fernandez Gallardo established a pavilion for sick children in the Hospital of San Andres. After realizing this pavilion did not have the adequate conditions to operate properly, and in the need of a children's hospital in Mexico City, Dr. Pacheco merged both institutions on April 2, 1869—with the help of Ms. Luciana Arrazola—and founded the Maternity and Childhood Hospital, the first institution for the care of ill children in the independent Mexico. Ever since it was founded, Dr. Eduardo Liceaga was in charge of the children's health. Later, with the help of the presidents Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada, and Díaz, he was able to consolidate the hospital in academic and health services aspects. This noble institution closed its doors on February 5, 1905, upon its incorporation to the General Hospital of Mexico, after 36 years of working for the welfare of Mexican children.