Butterbox Babies: Some sold, some buried

The Ideal Maternity Home 

The Ideal Maternity home was a maternity home in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. It was run by William Peach Young and his wife Lila Gladys Young. Mr. Young was a Chiropractor and an Unordained minister of the seventh day Adventist church. His wife was a midwife but liked to be known as an obstetrician. Together they ran The Ideal Maternity home from 1928 to 1947. 

The Youngs decided to get a 4 bedroom cottage in Eastchester to raise their 5 children in. Later on they had a vision to open up their home to those in need. So they opened a maternity home with the slogan "Where the sick get well". Soon the business took off and it became especially famous among Unwed women who were expecting children. The Ideal Maternity Home was a place where they could give birth without any social judgement. They also had adoption and abortion (illegal at the time) services. So the maternity home really felt ahead of its time. 

But it was no charity either. They asked the mothers for 100-500 dollars for the delivery and after care. Then also charged extra for essentials to trap them. If the mothers wanted to put their children up for adoption they would also charge about 300 dollars for what they called the “Adoption Transfer Agreement”. This was at a time when the weekly wage was 8 dollars per week. They would even charge the women to bury their children if they happen to pass away. But if the women couldn’t pay for that they would burn the bodies in the incinerator. If that wasn’t possible either then they would give the bodies to a local fisherman who used them as fish food.

Most women were unable to pay that kind of amount and worked inside the maternity home for years to pay off their debt. Sometimes the Youngs would even resort to blackmailing the women's family for money.   

So the Young’s service for women and children soon turned into dirty business. They made the most amount of money from selling children in the name of adoption. They charged the adoptive parents from 800-1000 dollars for what they described to be “healthy Caucasian babies”. The Young’s made about 3.5 million dollars in 10 years just by selling these children alone. Besides, they didn’t do any background check on the families they were giving away these children to. Sometimes children were adopted before they were even born. For that the adoptive parents only looked at the mother and chose as they pleased. More often than not, the adoption process was done in less than 24 hours in the local county court. 

But not all the children got adopted. Some with visible flaws had a hard time getting adopted. So the Youngs decided to get rid of them.

They starved the children and only gave them molasses and water. It only took them a couple of weeks to kill them. The dead bodies would be placed in wooden delivery boxes which were called the “butter box”. They had a handyman by the name of Glen and according to him, he helped the Youngs bury 100-125 bodies in a field.

Survivor/ victim stories:

• While one woman was in labor, the baby started choking on the umbilical cord. And Lila didn’t know what to do, so she started praying. Then William had to step in and deliver but the baby came out bottom first which was very dangerous for the child and painful for the mother. But they did nothing to soothe her pain. Fortunately, the mother and child both survived.

But a couple days later Lila told the mother that her child was unwell. But she didn’t believe Lila. She knew her child was fine because she had just nursed her a few hours ago. After some time Lila told her that her child had died. She was devastated but deep down knew that Lila was lying. She had also heard rumors that a wealthy family was visiting the maternity home and wanted to adopt a girl. And her child was the only girl at the home. So later on she questioned Lila but really got no answers and in fact never saw her daughter ever again.

• In 1935, a young woman by the name of Eva Nieforth decided to go to the said maternity home because she was expecting a child with her partner, Walter. They decided to keep the pregnancy hidden since they weren't married. Eva thought that this maternity home would be a safe place for her to conceive her child. 

Before Christmas, Eva went to the maternity home and was welcomed there. But things took a different turn. Her labor was anything but smooth. Apparently her child passed away and Eva was fighting for her life. So William had written a letter to Eva's partner to let him know about the situation. When Walter went there he found out that Eva had contracted an abdominal infection but wasn't treated or even given any antibiotics for it. In fact, The maternity home didn't even have any antibiotics. 

Walter was rightfully very upset. He asked them why they hadn't consulted a doctor. Which greatly offended William and he proudly said that he was the doctor and they didn't need anyone else. Lila then billed him for his child's burial. Afterwards, he wasn't allowed to see Eva so he left. And 2 days later, Eva passed away.

• In 1945, a woman went to the Ideal Maternity Home with a view to adopt a child but was completely shocked by what she saw there. She ended up reporting them to an adoption worker in New York. She said that the place was neglecting the children and they weren’t getting any personal care and looked malnourished. They kept about 3 children in 1 single crib. On top of that the place reeked of urine and other substances.

Now no one was able to do much about the maternity home since they were so well supported in the community. Especially by socialites and politicians. Most people  genuinely thought that they were supporting a good cause.

But finally in 1945, Dr. Frank Davis, Nova Scotia’s minister of public welfare, sent out an investigator to the maternity home. The inspector reported that the babies were underweight and neglected. Also The place was extremely unhygienic and not suitable for children or mothers.

So after these reports an amendment was added to the maternity boarding house act to add more requirements in order for licenses for maternity homes. After that, of course the Young's lost their license and were shut down. But they still tried again and again to renew their license.

In 1945, they were convicted for violating the maternity home act and practicing medicine without a license. But a fine of 150 dollars was the only consequence they received. But Lila wasn't done there. She filed a 25 thousand dollars lawsuit against a newspaper that had been publishing a lot about the Young's. Fortunately the only thing the trial led to was to expose them even further. After that their dirty business officially shut down and went bankrupt.

The ideal Maternity home was abandoned at first but then in 1962, it was set on fire. The same year William Young died from Cancer and a couple years later in 1967, Lila Young died of Leukemia. Lila was, in fact, buried next to the butterbox babies.