Stories of Indigenous women being forced to give birth outside of David Berry Hospital have emerged from an Aboriginal engagement report commissioned by NSW Health.
David Berry Hospital opened in 1909 and currently operates as a palliative care unit.
NSW Health is considering recommendations which include establishing an Aboriginal governance body to guide the future of the site.
An Aboriginal engagement report has revealed the dark history of a colonial-era hospital where First Nations women were "made to give birth on the verandah".
The report into David Berry Hospital on the New South Wales South Coast comes as the state government considers the future for the site, which operates as a palliative care unit.
Submissions from 17 Aboriginal organisations detailed the "discriminatory and traumatic" conditions First Nations women endured at the hospital during its 117-year history.
Drawing from more than 90 interviews with Aboriginal community members, the report included examples of mothers "labouring in the cold" after being denied indoor care.
It also found "consistent accounts" of the hospital separating Aboriginal mothers from their children, who were sent to nearby institutions days after being born.
Cleon Wellington, chief executive leader of the Aboriginal women's health service Waminda, said her service often encountered people with historical trauma from the hospital.
