The Pied Pipers of Victorian England

The British Medical Journal,
Vol. 1, No. 1577 (Mar. 21, 1891), p. 656

During the mid-late 1800s, reports like this could be regularly found inside the British Medical Journal. Baby farming, the custom of fostering or adopting-out a young child for money, was commonplace throughout Victorian England.  As continues to be the reality in many societies today, unmarried, pregnant women encountered considerable hardships. Unexpected and/or undesired children were a pecuniary encumbrance on typically already stretched resources. Family members regularly spurned these “unchaste” women, some children’s homes refused to admit babies conceived immorally, and the probability of marrying someone to help provide for you and a bastard child was laughable. Not to mention, aborting or deserting your baby was unlawful, illicit abortions could be fatal, and infanticide was punishable by death. For many women, the safest choice was putting the child “out to nurse” with a baby farmer; thanks be, there were plenty of them.

Read more »