Butterbox Babies is a 1992 book by Bette L. Cahill describing life in the 1930s

1930s

File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

 at the Ideal Maternity Home in East Chester, Nova Scotia

East Chester, Nova Scotia

East Chester is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Chester Municipal District . This community is perhaps best known for the tragic fate of theButterbox Babies.-References:*...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

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Overview

The Ideal Maternity Home, a home for unwed pregnant mothers, was operated by William Peach Young, an unordained Seventh-day Adventist

Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...

 minister and chiropractor

Chiropractor

A Chiropractor, according to the Association of Chiropractic Colleges , "focuses on the relationship between the body's main structures – the skeleton, the muscles and the nerves – and the patient's health. Chiropractors believe that health can be improved and preserved by making adjustments to...

, and his wife Lila Gladys Young, a midwife. They opened "The Life and Health Sanitarium", later called the Ideal Maternity Home in February 1928.

From 1928 to 1945 the home took in many unwed pregnant mothers and arranged adoptions for the infants. However, it faced serious allegations of profiteering from the fees charged to female residents and adoptive parents, and for the home's high rates of infant mortality which were later proven to be caused by starvation. Any baby deemed not perfect (moles etc) were starved to death and buried in butter boxes.

The book's title is a reference to the "butter boxes": these were small mitered pine boxes, used as coffins for the babies they murdered who were buried in the yard of the home.

Film adaptation

The book was made into a 1995 film starring Susan Clark

Susan Clark

Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...

, Peter MacNeill

Peter MacNeill

Peter MacNeill is a Canadian film and television actor who has starred in several TV shows and movies.His film credits have included The Hanging Garden , Geraldine's Fortune, Giant Mine, Lives of Girls and Women, The Events Leading Up to My Death, Dog Park, Something Beneath and A...

, Catherine Fitch, and Michael Riley

Michael Riley

Michael Riley is a Canadian actor and graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, Canada in 1984. Riley's first appearance was in the film No Man's Land...

, and directed by Don McBrearty

Don McBrearty

-Filmography:*American Nightmare, 1983*Coming Out Alive, 1984*Strange Tales/Ray Bradbury Theatre, 1986 *A Child's Christmas in Wales, 1987...

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Editions

• Butterbox Babies, Seal Books 1991. ISBN 978-0-77042-517-3
• Butterbox Babies: Baby Sales, Baby Deaths-New Revelations 15 Years Later, Fernwood Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-55266-213-7