After officially opening the year prior, on 2 February 1961 Mater Mothers' Hospital admitted its first women, and welcomed its first babies, exactly fifty years after the first patients were admitted to Mater Public Hospital. A further 2996 babies were born in the hospital's first year of operation.
Mater Mothers’ also welcomed its first intake of midwifery students in 1961. This commitment to teaching would be further solidified in 1968 with the construction of The University of Queensland clinical and teaching research unit.
From a clinical perspective, Queensland’s first baby to survive three inter-uterine blood transfusions was born and cared for at Mater Mothers' Hospital. Baby John and his mother were Rh incompatible (when a baby's Rhesus positive blood conflicts with the mother's negative blood).