this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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[–] moodymellodrone@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 month ago (9 children)

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”.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (8 children)

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")?

[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

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.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank

Burying dead babies in a septic tank, even unused, seems callous.

[–] DreamAccountant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You'd be right, if you didn't so completely understate the judgment. Callous? No. It's not callous.

It's fucking horrible. Despicable. Against every single thing their religion claims on multiple levels. It's a great reason to never, ever, ever let this religion ever practice any religion in their country ever again. That's what it is.

Callous? YOU'RE Callous!

[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

You are aware that disposing of stillborn infants as biologic waste has been the standard procedure until at least the 2000s in all hospitals, anc probably still is in the majority of hospitals world wide? This has nothing to do with religion.

[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

Standard procedure for stillborn babies all over the world, at least until the 2000s.

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