Following the registration of nurses, attention turned to the standards required for midwifery, and in 1904 a Midwives’ Registration Act was passed. The Prime Minister, Richard Seddon, initiated the setting-up of specialised hospitals both to train midwives and to provide high quality obstetric facilities for working-class women. The first hospital was named St Helen’s after Seddon’s birthplace in Lancashire, England, and the name continued as other facilities were opened.