On 2 February 1961 Mater Mothers' Hospital admitted its first maternity patients and welcomed its first babies, exactly 50 years after the official opening of Mater Public Hospital. A total of 2,996 babies were born in the hospital's first year of operation.
In the same year, Mater Mothers’ Hospital also welcomed its first intake of midwifery students. This commitment to teaching would be further solidified in 1968 with the construction of The University of Queensland clinical and teaching research unit.
In another milestone, Queensland’s first baby to survive three inter-uterine blood transfusions was born and cared for at Mater Mothers' Hospital in 1961. Baby John and his mother were Rh incompatible (when a baby's Rhesus positive blood conflicts with the mother's negative blood).