baby farming
Commercial child-rearing
Baby farming was the practice, common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, of accepting infants for care in exchange for payment, typically from unwed mothers or families unable to raise them.
The term carries dark connotations because many baby farmers provided negligent or fatal care, sometimes deliberately, to maximize profit while minimizing expense.
The practice led to significant infant mortality and eventually prompted child welfare legislation in Britain and elsewhere.
- infant careAttending to babies' needs
- foundlingAbandoned child discovered
- unwed motherUnmarried female parent
- illegitimate childChild of unmarried parents
- childcareSupervision of young ones
nursery · orphanage · wet nurse · foster care · rearing · social stigma · dark secret · back alley · institution · Victorian era · adoption policies · safe haven · workhouses · reformatories · murder · child abandonment · caretaker · kinship care
baby farmingmaternal care
Nurturing by a mother
child welfare · protective custody · pediatric nursing · wet nursing
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