Finding Family

Solving the ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of adoption in an effort to reunite survivors of Nova Scotia’s infamous Ideal Maternity Home with their birth families

- Riva Barnett

The infamous Ideal Maternity Home (IMH) was aprivately run baby factory, operated from 1928 until the late 1940s in rural East Chester, N.S. The agency reached its heyday during World War II when Halifax was the chief military port in Eastern Canada.

Birth control and abortion were illegal in Nova Scotia and the IMH provided a discreet service for hundreds of unwed pregnant women. Many local married couples also paid to have their children born there.

Babies were sold to visitors without any investigation into their parental suitability. Babies who were handicapped, biracial or otherwise deemed “unmarketable” were neglected until they succumbed to death. Their tiny bodies were placed in wooden butter boxes (hence the term “butterbox babies”) and the makeshift co‰ns were buried in unmarked graves or simply dropped into the ocean.

The unsavoury business practices at the IMH were hidden. Several of the birth mothers, some unwed, others married, were informed that their baby had died when, in fact, the infant was sold to the highest bidder. Twins were separated or even created by pairing two unrelated infants in order to accommodate the wishes of the buyers. Birth certificates were either falsified or destroyed. Adoption fees allegedly reached a high of almost $10,000 in the 1940s!

The IMH advertised heavily in Canada to attract pregnant women, and in the U.S. to attract adoptive parents. Hundreds of Canadian babies were adopted and raised in the U.S. without any knowledge of their Canadian roots.