Butterbox Survivors: Life After the Ideal Maternity Home

Pat Fenton is chair of the Adoption Council of Ontario.

For Canadians, the term “butterbox babies” conjures up images of
black-market adoptions and unexplained baby deaths in Nova Scotia in the
1930s and 1940s. Bette Cahill’s book Butterbox Babies (1992) and the
film by the same name revealed activities and events at the Ideal
Maternity Home run by Lila and William Young in East Chester, Nova
Scotia.

Butterbox Survivors is a collection of moving personal stories from
adoptees and birth parents who survived the Ideal Maternity Home. The
author, himself a survivor and an adoptee, has gathered the stories of
36 adoptees and several birth parents who used the Home’s services.
The accounts cover a variety of situations, some very happy, others very
tragic. Some of the birth parents thought their children had died, only
to discover that in fact they had been placed for adoption.

The preface provides a succinct biography of the Youngs and a history
of the Ideal Maternity Home. The first chapter describes the support
group that has formed for survivors. The personal accounts in subsequent
chapters reflect the joys and challenges encountered by the survivors
and provide a view of the Home’s operations. The survivors’ memories
and experiences exemplify and illustrate the emotional costs of secrecy
in adoption, their struggle for identity, and their efforts to find
their family members. Although the book seems to emphasize the dark side
of adoption, it also portrays adoptees who have found happiness and
connectedness in their adoptive families.

A list of 114 adoptees still searching for or being sought by their
birth parents is included as an appendix. It shows what scanty
information exists for some adoptees: several listings read only “Baby
Girl,” accompanied by a birth date and a number. For those who wish to
learn more about searching, Hartlen has included appendixes that list
search information and resources. Also included in the appendixes is an
impassioned plea for open records written by Mark Slayter of Parent
Finders Nova Scotia. This book is highly recommended, especially for its
insights into the adoption experience and the legacy of the Ideal
Maternity Home.