Butterbox Babies

Janet McCreadie, formerly the editor of the Pelham Herald, is currently
a freelance editor and writer.

Butterboxes became crude coffins for infants who died at the Ideal
Maternity Home in East Chester, Nova Scotia. The home became the subject
of public trials and private whisperings for close to half a century.
Three years of research and interviews led writer Bette Cahill to
uncover the ugly facts of the case. She likens the way in which children
born in the Ideal Maternity Home were offered for adoption to baby
farming for profit. Most of the unwed mothers of these children were
unaware of what was happening. Worse still, the babies placed in new
homes were the lucky ones: Cahill raises disturbing questions about the
abnormally high infant mortality rate at the home in this story of
cruelty, neglect, and greed.