The Butterbox Babies: Murder of Newborns
In the spring of 1935, Eva Neiforth of Nova Scotia was in love with a man named Walter. Eva found out she was pregnant and they had to keep it a secret as being pregnant out of wedlock was frowned upon on in Canada at the time. Unmarried and alone, she had heard about The Ideal Maternity Home in East Chester and decided to have her baby there. She arrived at the maternity home just before Christmas and the owners off the home, Lila and William Young took her in. Eva has only been there about a week before she contracted an abdominal infection and was bedridden until the end of January when she went into labor. The labor was rough and Eva barely made it alive. Unfortunately her baby passed shortly after birth and a day later after the birth, Eva was still fighting for her life. William had written Walter, Eva’s boyfriend, to inform him on the situation with Eva. Walter went to visit Eva at the maternity home and was surprised to find out that Eva has not been given any antibiotics to help her with her infection due to the fact that the maternity home did not have any available. Walter insisted William call a doctor to come out and have a look at Eva. William was offended by what Walter said as he says he is a doctor and it was unnecessary to involve a third party. Lila Young took a worried Walter to the side to inform him about his babies death and then handed him an invoice of $25 in which $20 was for the burial of their baby. Once Walter paid, he was asked to leave as visiting hours were over. Two days , Eva has passed. Unfortunately, Eva was not the first or only person to die at the Ideal Maternity Home.
Lila Young way born in 1899 and after high school, Lila went on to become a teacher and at the age of 25, she met William, 26. William graduated from medical school in 1923 and two years later, the couple got married. Soon after, Lila got pregnant and went on to have five kids in total. For some time, Lila trained to become a midwife and William became a chiropractor in Chicago.
The couple eventually moved back to Nova Scotia where they purchased a four bedroom home with some land. They decided that there they should open up a facility to help the sick even though they didn’t have much money to begin with. Soon after opening up the facility for the sick, they realized there was a high demand for maternity care in that area especially for young expectant mothers. They eventually turned the place around and decided to make it just a maternity home that offers care. They named their “business” The Ideal Maternity Home. The home quickly became popular to those young unmarried expectant mothers. The home offered privacy which was huge for these women as being pregnant out of wedlock was frowned upon. The home eventually offered adoption services and performed abortions which was illegal at the time.
Women entering the home had to pay anywhere between $100 to $500 to have their baby delivered there. At the time that was a lot of money and some women were unable to pay. William and Lila would blackmail these women not able to afford their services by saying that they would tell the women’s family’s about the pregnancy. An alternative to pay back the money owed was to be be servants to the Young’s until their bill was paid which meant they would work for free and some women spent years at the home.
Everything at the home had a price. Diapers were sold individually for $12. If the infants were to pass, the $20 was charged for the funeral and burial of the babies. The babies were put in wooden boxes from a creamery and they were referred to as butter boxes. If the mother could not pay the burial fee, the baby was to be discarded by being burned or the baby was given to fishermen to throw into the sea. If mothers could not afford to care for their babies, they could pay the Young’s $300 and that insured a lifetime of care. The babies would then be placed for adoption. Women who gave birth elsewhere would also bring their babies to the home to give up for adoption. The babies were given to neighbors to care for until they were adopted. Some babies did not live long as the Young’s would get rid of unmarketable babies by feeding them water and molasses which would cause them to die in a couple of weeks. Babies that were unmarketable were ones that were sick, had birth marks, had abnormalities, or were mixed race. The babies kept were healthy Caucasian babies as they were favorable.
Outsiders viewed the home as a great place with loving providers there to help women when in fact, the Young’s were in it for the money. Lila would pass herself off as an obstetrics specialist and she would deliver the babies. It was said that she was rough with the mothers. Meanwhile, William would be in the room and would pray every time a baby was born.
One women by the name Violet arrived at the maternity home and viewed her stay as odd. Her delivery was rough and her baby was born breached. Breach deliveries are dangerous but both mother and baby were alive. Violet would feed her baby and Lila would then take the baby back for care. A few days later, Lila brought the baby back to Violet but did not let Violet get close to the baby as Lila said the baby was ill and it was not looking too good for the baby. Violet saw that as odd as she had been feeding the baby and the baby appeared healthy. Soon after, Lila said the baby had not made it. Violet was in disbelief and heard rumors that a wealthy family had come to the home to the maternity home to adopt a baby girl but Violet knew her daughter was the only girl just delivered there, but with no evidence, there was nothing she could do so she left with no baby.
Between 1928–1935, a total of 148 babies had been born at the maternity home. In 1933, Dr. Frank came into office for Nova Scotia and had heard rumors and suspicious theories of babies deaths at the maternity home. He ordered sporadic investigations and made the Young’s hurt a registered nurse. The nurse was to see what went on behind closed doors, but because it was just her, she was not at the maternity home 24/7 so she only saw a small part of how the home was ran. Eventually the maternity home was ran back to normal.
In 1936, the Young’s were charged with manslaughter of Eva and her baby, a year after their death. A pathologist testified that they performed a post mortem exam on Eva and her baby and discovered that Eva had died because she had contracted an infection from the use of unserialized obstetric instruments. The baby had died because the forceps Lila used to pull the baby out ripped the occipital bone through which the spinal cord passes. The Young’s denied all this and were so convincing that they were eventually acquitted from any charge. After this, the Young’s were in the public eyes interest and routine inspections were conducted with no prior notification. The Young’s were prohibited from promoting their adoption services, but that did not stop them.
The business continued to grow for the Young’s and they expanded their home. People who could not legally adopt would go to the maternity home to adopt illegally. When the family to adopt would arrive, there would be a lineup of babies that would fit their criteria. The Young’s would charge the families to adopt, anywhere between $1,000-$10,000 per child.
In 1945, public health officials paid a visit to the maternity home to investigate what really was going on and they were shocked by what they saw. The rooms were filthy, reeked of urine, and the babies were malnourished. Lila tried to fight back and said she was being harassed by the officials but it was too late as their good reputation had ended. That November, the Young’s were ordered to shut down the home and their licenses were revoked. They did not stop and continued to take women in. The Young’s would have charges against them but they would eventually be let off easy. Eventually the Young’s got tired of fighting back to save the maternity home and they close it down. The couple became broke after spending their funds on court and lawyer fees. They both eventually died of cancer. To date, some of the children given through adoption have been able to reconnect with their biological families.
