I don’t know much about mother and baby homes and I didn’t know about this case, so I clicked the article’s link to state apology to learn more. This is so sad.
It estimated 9,000 children, 15% of the total, died – an “appalling” infant mortality rate about double the national average. Neglect, poor food and extreme austerity all played a part. Instead of saving the lives of children legally deemed illegitimate, the homes “significantly reduced their prospects of survival”.
I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to read about this atm…
Anything in there about what the motivations were? Greed (pocketing charitable contributions)? Psychopathy? Religion / mental illness (considering the children an “abomination”)?
The motivation wasn’t to protect anyone. It was to control the population. Unwed mothers were seen as the lowest class of society, and were thrown out of society. Why? Religion. Religious assholes today still look down on unwed mothers. So they were sent to the edge of town, put on a work farm/factory and hidden from public view.
When it was time to give birth, they didn’t use hospitals. They used their fictional god to protect them. Which resulted in the deaths of many of the women and children. Which were then discarded in the garbage. Because their religion regarded them as garbage. Much as they still do today.
Yeah, religion is mental illness. Look at the assholes here defending it. They’re fucking bonkers.
The motivation was to protect women, who became pregnant outside of marriage, from becoming outcasts, and giving their children a chance of survival.
A woman who became pregnant outside of marriage in these times had three choices:
illegal abortion, with a high risk of death, infertility and imprisonment
giving birth and face a life as social outcast for herself and her child
“repent”, go to a nunnery, give birth there, give up the child who would be raised in an orphanage, and return to society. As a bonus they often got some education in these “homes for fallen maidens”, at least in my country.
By the way – a 15 % infant mortality rate sounds terrible to us moderners, but according to the article this was only double the normal infant mortality! This is a very good survival rate for new borns and infants who lost their mothers — this was the age before baby formula diet and antibiotics. We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.
We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.
Should we honor them for tossing the dead babies into the septic tank against the mothers wishes, after letting them die from neglect when promising safety, and then hiding the evidence and trying to stop any investigation until very recently?
This wasn’t in the 1800s, it didn’t end till 1998.
The article said till 1961. Concerning neonatal and infant care, the 1960s was the time when infant mortality started to drop. The article stated that the infant mortality in these homes was double the avarage infant mortality. If you take into account that the babies were separated from their mothers after birth, this is a pretty good result. If the infants had been neglected, you’d exspect a much higher mortality rate.
Regarding disposing of dead babies in septic tanks – that depends. Stillborn babies were not considered human remains until very recently, and disposed of as biological waste all over the world.
I don’t know much about mother and baby homes and I didn’t know about this case, so I clicked the article’s link to state apology to learn more. This is so sad.
I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to read about this atm…
Anything in there about what the motivations were? Greed (pocketing charitable contributions)? Psychopathy? Religion / mental illness (considering the children an “abomination”)?
The motivation wasn’t to protect anyone. It was to control the population. Unwed mothers were seen as the lowest class of society, and were thrown out of society. Why? Religion. Religious assholes today still look down on unwed mothers. So they were sent to the edge of town, put on a work farm/factory and hidden from public view.
When it was time to give birth, they didn’t use hospitals. They used their fictional god to protect them. Which resulted in the deaths of many of the women and children. Which were then discarded in the garbage. Because their religion regarded them as garbage. Much as they still do today.
Yeah, religion is mental illness. Look at the assholes here defending it. They’re fucking bonkers.
The motivation was to protect women, who became pregnant outside of marriage, from becoming outcasts, and giving their children a chance of survival.
A woman who became pregnant outside of marriage in these times had three choices:
By the way – a 15 % infant mortality rate sounds terrible to us moderners, but according to the article this was only double the normal infant mortality! This is a very good survival rate for new borns and infants who lost their mothers — this was the age before baby formula diet and antibiotics. We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.
Should we honor them for tossing the dead babies into the septic tank against the mothers wishes, after letting them die from neglect when promising safety, and then hiding the evidence and trying to stop any investigation until very recently?
This wasn’t in the 1800s, it didn’t end till 1998.
The article said till 1961. Concerning neonatal and infant care, the 1960s was the time when infant mortality started to drop. The article stated that the infant mortality in these homes was double the avarage infant mortality. If you take into account that the babies were separated from their mothers after birth, this is a pretty good result. If the infants had been neglected, you’d exspect a much higher mortality rate.
Regarding disposing of dead babies in septic tanks – that depends. Stillborn babies were not considered human remains until very recently, and disposed of as biological waste all over the world.