Winter spent the majority of her childhood in England, but returned to Calcutta in 1858 at the age of sixteen to work for the Union Society for the Propagation of Gospel (USPG).
[2] While working on Zenana missions, Winter wrote that, "Women in India get no relief from suffering... [because] the medicine man takes them in hand and his remedies are the crudest.
"[2] Winter attempted to mediate the medical issues in Calcutta by "distributing simple remedies to all classes of Hindu women," who she described as "confine[d] to the purdah.
"[2] While in Calcutta, Winter realized that the local women's only time out of the purdah was when they went to the river to pray, a concept that she would later use to advance her distribution of medicine to females.
During this time, Winter was able to observe the dramatic effect that illness had on the population of Delhi, specifically the toll it took on women.
[5] In 1865, Priscilla Winter returned to England on furlough from the Mission, with the intention of figuring out a way to fund a medical dispensary dedicated to work on women.
[5] This foundation was called the White Ladies Association (WLA), and it made its founding statement in Brighton, England in October 1866.
[3] While the majority of the funding for the DFMM came from the White Ladies Association, capital also came from the USPG, Punjab government, and Delhi Municipality.
[3] The Mission was beginning to make way on its manifest, and in 1871 Reverend Winter recorded that the DFMM had begun to train local female nurses.
In addition, it was difficult to treat women in their homes, spread out in Delhi, as opposed to a hospital-like building where medicine and medical knowledge is concentrated.
Zeyen opened an outpost in Karnal, approximately seventy miles from Delhi, which cemented the establishment of the DFMM.
The hospital hired their first female doctor, Jenny Muller, a woman of Indian-German origins who had attended the London School of Medicine for Women.
Its mission statement proclaims, "St. Stephen's Hospital is committed to serving all sections of society in the spirit of Christ, by providing quality, affordable healthcare as well as training healthcare professionals of excellence who would embody the Christian values of selfless service rendered with compassion and love.