The Hospital in Nevis, known as Queen’s House was destroyed in the Hurricane of 1899, and the patients were housed in the island prison. In 1904, Mr. Thomas Liburd, one of the two nominated Members of Government complained bitterly of the plight of the patients, but it was not until 1909 when the old Government House which was also the temporary Magistrate’s Residence was converted into the Hospital named after Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward the Second. 
   “Within the Community were the Nanas, honest hard working women who had learnt to deliver babies mostly by watching other women. These Nanas received payment in kind – eggs, chicken, some fish, a few vegetables, or whatever their clients could afford.” 
   The care and treatment for women in labour was very ancient – “rum to kill pain and kitchen cobwebs to dress umbilical cords”.