Baby farming

Baby farming refers to the practice of accepting custody 2 Decline of an infant or child in exchange for payment in late- Victorian Era Britain and, less commonly, in Australia Spurred by a series of articles that appeared in the British and the United States. If the infant was young, this usu- Medical Journal in 1867, Parliament of the United King- ally included wet-nursing (breast-feeding by a woman not dom began to regulate baby farming in 1872 with the pas- the mother). Some baby farmers “adopted” children for sage of the Infant Life Protection Act. A series of acts lump-sum payments, while others cared for infants for passed over the next seventy years, including the Children periodic payments. Act 1908 and the 1939 Adoption of Children (Regula- tion) Act, gradually placed adoption and foster care under the protection and regulation of the state.

3 Related usage

1 Description The term has been used to describe the sale of eggs for use in assisted conception, particularly in vitro fertilization.

Though baby farmers were paid in the understanding that The Nazis’ Lebensborn (“Fountain of Life”) programme [2] care would be provided, the term “baby farmer” was used has been described as a form of baby farming. as an insult, and improper treatment was usually implied. Illegitimacy and its attendant social stigma were usually the impetus for a mother’s decision to put her children 4 In popular culture “out to nurse” with a baby farmer, but baby farming also encompassed foster care and adoption in the period be- • The title character in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist fore they were regulated by British law. spends his first years in a “baby farm.” Wealthier women would also put their infants out to be • cared for in the homes of villagers. Claire Tomalin gives The eponymous heroine puts her newborn “out to a detailed account of this in her biography of Jane Austen, nurse” with a baby farmer in George Moore's Esther who was fostered in this manner, as were all her siblings, Waters (1894). from a few months old until they were toddlers.[1] Toma- • The main character in Perfume, Jean-Baptiste lin emphasizes the emotional distance this created. Grenouille, was orphaned shortly after birth and Particularly in the case of lump-sum adoptions, it was brought up in a baby farmer style orphanage. more profitable for the baby farmer if the infant or child she adopted died, since the small payment could • The character of Mrs. Sucksby in Sarah Waters's not cover the care of the child for long. Some baby novel Fingersmith is a baby farmer. farmers adopted numerous children and then neglected • them or murdered them outright (see infanticide). Sev- The Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore, the eral were tried for murder, manslaughter, or criminal character of Buttercup reveals that, when a baby neglect and were hanged. Margaret Waters (executed farmer, she had switched two babies of different so- 1870) and Amelia Dyer (executed 1896) were two in- cial classes. This is part of a satire of class hierarchy famous British baby farmers, as were Amelia Sach and in Victorian England. Annie Walters (executed 1903). The last baby farmer • The book Mama’s Babies by Gary Crew is the story to be executed in Britain was Rhoda Willis, who was of a child of a baby farmer in the 1890s. hanged in Wales in 1907. The only woman to be exe- cuted in New Zealand, Minnie Dean, was a baby farmer. • The silent film Sparrows (1926) with Mary Pickford In Scandinavia there was a euphemism for this activity: was set in a baby farm in the Southern swamps. "änglamakerska" (Swedish, including Hilda Nilsson) and "englemagerske" (Danish), both literally meaning a fe- • In The Fire Thief trilogy of novels, a baby farm fig- male “angel maker”. ures prominently.

1 2 6 EXTERNAL LINKS

• Australian musical The Hatpin features a mother’s experience with baby farmers and was inspired by the true story of Amber Murray and the Makin fam- ily. • In a March 2013 episode of Syfy's Haunted Col- lector, John Zaffis and his team discovered that a Boston cigar bar used to house a baby farm in the 1870s. Ms. Elwood, who ran the farm, was found to have abused and even killed some of the infants there. They also found a syringe buried in the build- ing’s foundation dating to the same time frame of the farm.[3]

5 References

[1] excerpt from Jane Austen: A Biography

[2] Hall, Allan (3 November 2006). “Secret Nazi 'baby farm' children meet”. Daily Mail.

[3] "'Haunted Collector': Cigar Bar Used To Be A 'Baby Farm' That Abused Children (VIDEO)". Huffpost TV. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2016.

6 External links

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baby-Farming". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• “Baby farming” from the Adoption History Project • Homrighaus, Ruth Ellen. Baby Farming: The Care of Illegitimate Children in England, 1860–1943. Ph.D. diss., 2003. Rev. ed., 2010, at Historytools.

• Baby farmers (NZHistory.net.nz) 3

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1 Text

• Baby farming Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_farming?oldid=717324489 Contributors: The Epopt, Enchanter, SimonP, Ellmist, Bignose, KF, Hephaestos, Emperorbma, WhisperToMe, Tschild, Timrollpickering, Pabouk, Vanished user 1234567890, User2004, Xezbeth, Hooperbloob, Carbon Caryatid, Esrob, Happygeenp, Avenue, Dtobias, Nfras, Enragedferret, Texasmusician, Gra- ham87, Ian Pitchford, GuruBuckaroo, Jpfagerback, David Voelker, Asarelah, Elkman, Closedmouth, SmackBot, Reedy, Konczewski, PiMaster3, Parrot of Doom, Stereorock, KimChee, ChristineD, Ssilvers, Jmg38, Jamie Mackay, Anjijoy, Rob.hranac, Fences and win- dows, Cannibalist, Alan Rockefeller, Soundofmusicals, Oisin Allen, Malick78, Pacifism91, Hetaira~enwiki, Boneyard90, JasonAQuest, Legobot, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, Clarinetguy097, Bob Burkhardt, Laelele, Reimmichl-212, Acsian88, Wikipelli, PBS-AWB, Avi- cAWB, ClueBot NG, Jorgenev, Thenoisybird, SteenthIWbot, Lestermandersson, Eric Corbett, Cyrej, Chris Brookes Author, NOJuju and Anonymous: 38

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