| Foundling Hospital, Dublin | |
|---|---|
 "Dining Hall, Foundling Hospital", Dublin. | |
  Shown in Dublin | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Dublin, Republic of Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°20′31″N6°17′45″W / 53.3420°N 6.2958°W |
| History | |
| Opened | 1704 |
| Closed | 1835 |
The Foundling Hospital was a hospital for abandoned children in Dublin, Ireland which was established as part of the South Dublin Union.
The Foundling Hospital of Dublin was opened in 1704. [1] Firmly established by mid-18th century, the Foundling Hospital had steadily become a large "baby farming" institution. Two primary objectives of the hospital were to avoid deaths and murders of illegitimate children and to teach the Protestant faith to these children. [2] [3]
No inquiry was made about the parents, and no money received. [4] A cradle was installed by 1730. [5] Between 1,500 and 2,000 children were received annually. A large income was derived from a duty on coal. [6] In 1822 an admission fee of £5 was charged on the parish from which the child came. This reduced the annual arrivals to about 500. [7]
Child deaths during transport to the hospital or whilst staying in the hospital were not infrequent and would often become the subject of an inquiry. The number of Protestant nurses was usually inadequate with the resulting use of Roman Catholic nurses and occasional consequence of "religious error". [2]
Between 1790 and 1796 some 5,216 infants were sent there, of whom 5,215 died. Between 1796 and 1826 51,150 infants were admitted to the hospital, of whom 41,524 died. [2] In 1829 the select committee on the Irish miscellaneous estimates recommended that no further assistance should be given. [1] Only during the tenure of Lady Arabella Denny and later the other “Ladies Governesses” did the death rate and horrific conditions of the foundling hospital improve. [2] However during its existence the hospital had not preserved life or educated the foundlings. [1] The mortality was nearly 4 in 5, and the total cost climbing to almost £40,000 a year. Accordingly, in 1835 Lord Glenelg (then Irish Secretary) closed the institution. [1] [2]
A new children's hospital has been proposed to move the National Children's Hospital from Tallaght University Hospital on to the campus of St. James's Hospital. [8]
Former senator, John Gilroy, said that given the presence of the foundling hospital on the site and the very high death rate, there was a possibility that children might have been buried there. [8] However extensive investigation including the environmental impact study and the site excavation works found no evidence of any graves on the site. [9] [10]
Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an illegal way, with the intent of never resuming or reasserting guardianship. The phrase is typically used to describe the physical abandonment of a child, but it can also include severe cases of neglect and emotional abandonment, such as when parents fail to provide financial and emotional support for children over an extended period of time. An abandoned child is referred to as a foundling. Baby dumping refers to parents leaving a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of terminating their care for the child. It is also known as rehoming when adoptive parents use illegal means, such as the internet, to find new homes for their children. In the case where child abandonment is anonymous within the first 12 months, it may be referred to as secret child abandonment.
The Foundling Hospital was a children’s home in London, England, founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is in the 21st century, simply indicating the institution's "hospitality" to those less fortunate. Nevertheless, one of the top priorities of the committee at the Foundling Hospital was children's health, as they combated smallpox, fevers, consumption, dysentery and even infections from everyday activities like teething that drove up mortality rates and risked epidemics. With their energies focused on maintaining a disinfected environment, providing simple clothing and fare, the committee paid less attention to and spent less on developing children's education. As a result, financial problems would hound the institution for years to come, despite the growing "fashionableness" of charities like the hospital.
A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures, the families are linked by a special relationship of milk kinship. Wet-nursing existed in cultures around the world until the invention of reliable formula milk in the 20th century. The practice has made a small comeback in the 21st century.
A children's hospital is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth up to until age 18, and through age 21 and older in the United States. In certain special cases, they may also treat adults. The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine and adult surgical specialties.
A foundling hospital was originally an institution for the reception of foundlings, i.e., children who had been abandoned or exposed, and left for the public to find and save. A foundling hospital was not necessarily a medical hospital, but more commonly a children's home, offering shelter and education to foundlings.
René Árpád Spitz was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst. He is best known for his analysis of hospitalized infants in which he found links between marasmus and death with unmothered infants. Spitz also made significant contributions to the school of ego psychology.
St. James's Hospital is a teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Its academic partner is Trinity College Dublin. It is managed by Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours is an international Roman Catholic women's religious congregation for nursing, whose declared mission is to care for those who are sick and dying. It was founded by Josephine Potel in 1824, in Paris, France. While the Congregation's stated object is to care for patients from all socio-economic groups, in some territories they only operate for-profit private hospitals. Reflecting their name, the Congregation's motto is "Good Help to Those in Need."
Sister Irene was an American nun who founded the New York Foundling Hospital in 1869, at a time when abandoned infants were routinely sent to almshouses with the sick and insane. The first refuge was in a brownstone on E.12th St. in Manhattan, where babies could be left anonymously in a receiving crib with no questions asked. The practice was an echo of the medieval foundling wheel and an early example of modern "safe haven" practices.
A House of Industry was a workhouse in Dublin, Ireland which existed from its establishment by an act of parliament in 1703, "for the employment and maintaining the poor thereof."
Lady Arabella Fitzmaurice Denny (1707–1792) was an Irish philanthropist, and founder of the Magdalen Asylum for Protestant Girls in Leeson Street, Dublin in 1765.
Bethany Home was a residential home in Dublin, Ireland mainly for Protestant unmarried mothers and their children, and also for Protestant women convicted of petty theft, prostitution, and infanticide. Most had a Church of Ireland background. The home was run and managed by evangelical Protestants, who, in the main, were Plymouth Brethren, Church of Ireland or Presbyterian. It catered to "fallen women" and operated in Blackhall Place, Dublin (1921–34), and then in Orwell Road, Rathgar (1934–72), until its closure. The home sent some children, some unaccompanied, to Northern Ireland, England, and to the United States.
Human to animal breastfeeding has been practiced in some different cultures during various time periods. The practice of breastfeeding or suckling between humans and other species occurred in both directions: women sometimes breastfed young animals, and animals were used to suckle babies and children. Animals were used as substitute wet nurses for infants, particularly after the rise of syphilis increased the health risks of wet nursing. Goats and donkeys were widely used to feed abandoned babies in foundling hospitals in 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Breastfeeding animals has also been practised, whether for perceived health reasons – such as to toughen the nipples and improve the flow of milk – or for religious and cultural purposes. A wide variety of animals have been used for this purpose, including puppies, kittens, piglets and monkeys.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was a judicial commission of investigation, established in 2015 by the Irish government to investigate deaths and misconduct during the 20th century in mother and baby homes—institutions, most run by Catholic religious nuns, where unwed women were sent to deliver their babies. It was set up following statements that the bodies of up to 800 babies and children may have been interred in an unmarked mass grave in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, located in Tuam, County Galway. Its remit additionally covered investigation into the records of and the practices at an additional thirteen Mother and Baby Homes. The members of the three-person Commission were Judge Yvonne Murphy (chairperson), Dr William Duncan and Professor Mary E. Daly.
La Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad de La Habana, was for 270 years Havana's repository of Havana's unwanted children. The House of Charity started during a time when Cuba was experiencing extreme poverty, unemployment, and corruption in the government. Corrupt leaders were plundering the public treasury and little attention was given to social assistance, health, education, or the protection of the poor: "los desamparados".
The Infants' Home Child and Family Services was established in Sydney, Australia in 1874 as a refuge for unwed mothers and their babies and evolving over time to a current provider of early childhood education and health services.
New York Nursery and Child's Hospital was an obstetrics and pediatrics hospital founded on May 2, 1854 by Mary Ann Delafield DuBois and Ana R. Emmit in New York City. Initially the Hospital served as a foundling home and provided care for New York's working women and their children. It was a pioneer in treating infants under the age of two.