Baby farming facts for kids
Baby farming was a historical practice in late-Victorian Britain. It involved people taking care of babies or young children in exchange for money. Sometimes, this included wet-nursing, where a woman who was not the mother would breastfeed the infant.
Some people who practiced baby farming would "adopt" children for a one-time payment. Others cared for infants for regular payments. The term "baby farmer" often suggested that the children were not treated well.
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What Was Baby Farming?
Even though baby farmers were paid to provide care, the term "baby farmer" was often used as an insult. It usually meant that the children were not treated properly.
In those times, if a mother had a child outside of marriage, there was a lot of social disapproval. This often led mothers to place their children with a baby farmer. Baby farming also included what we now call foster care and adoption before these practices were properly regulated by law in Britain.
Wealthier women also sometimes sent their infants to be cared for in the homes of villagers. For example, the famous author Jane Austen and all her siblings were cared for this way from a young age until they were toddlers. This practice could create emotional distance between parents and children.
Why Was It Dangerous?
Especially when a baby farmer received a single payment for "adopting" a child, it was more profitable if the child did not live long. This is because the small payment would not cover the cost of caring for the child for many years. Because of this, some baby farmers took in many children and then neglected them.
In Scandinavia, there was a sad nickname for this activity: änglamakerska (in Swedish) or englemagerske (in Danish). Both terms literally mean "angel maker," referring to the children who died while in such care.
How Baby Farming Declined
Concerns about baby farming grew, especially after articles appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1867. This led the Parliament of the United Kingdom to start regulating the practice.
Early Laws to Protect Infants
The first major law was the Infant Life Protection Act 1872. This act aimed to make baby farming safer.
Later, in 1896, Athelstan Braxton Hicks, a London coroner (an official who investigates deaths), spoke about the dangers of baby farming. He shared stories of neglect, even in cases where baby farmers tried to follow the law by caring for only one infant at a time. Juries at the time also called for stronger laws to protect children.
The Infant Life Protection Act 1897 gave local authorities the power to control and register nurses who cared for more than one child under the age of five for longer than 48 hours. This was a big step towards better oversight.
More Protections for Children
The Children Act 1908 further improved child safety. It stated that no infant could be kept in a home that was unhealthy or too crowded. It also made it illegal for an unfit nurse to neglect a child.
Over the next 70 years, a series of laws were passed. These included the Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939. These laws slowly brought adoption and foster care under the protection and regulation of the government. This helped ensure children were safe and well-cared for.
Baby Farming After World War II
In the 1960s and 1970s, a different kind of "farming" happened in the UK. Thousands of children from West African families were privately fostered by white families. This was often called 'farming'. The biological parents were usually students working in the UK. They would place advertisements in newspapers to find foster families to care for their children.
