Dublin Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Hospitals
A couple of kilometers from where I am typing this post is St James’ Hospital. These days it’s a regular hospital – break your arm and they’ll fix you up – however from 1704 to 1835 a foundling hospital operated there. A foundling hospital, for those who don’t know, is a place for people with unwanted, or illegitimate children, to anonymously dispose of their offspring. Many such “hospitals” employed a chute system where the parent would open a chute, place the child inside and close it, ensuring their identity would be protected. The idea was that the institution, which in this case was funded by the state and (from 1822 onward) the church, would take these children in, feed and educate them. However this was not the case. Of the 1,500 to 2,000 infants deposited into the Dublin foundling hospital annually, conservative estimates say that 4 in 5 children died in their “care”. The children were not fed or clothed adequately nor were they educated. Between the years of 1791 and 1796 no less than 5,216 infants were admitted to the hospital. Only one survived. In 1797 a Committee of the Irish House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the Management of the Establishment. The subsequent report was damning.
The report describes how the children were “stripped” when sent up to the infirmary and laid, five or six in the receptacles called cradles which were, according to the report “swarming with vermin.” They were then covered over with filthy and dirty blankets, which had been “cast” as unfit for use. Their diet consisted of bread and water. One particularly nasty device was called “The Bottle”. Nurses were given “The Bottle” and ordered to feed all the children on its contents. They were told it contained medicine that had a calming effect on the infants, it “assisted them” in being quiet. However it was apparent that the only thing it was “assisting” was the speedy death of the children to make room for the next batch. When quizzed by the inquiry on the contents of “The Bottle” the head surgeon remained tight lipped. We can only imagine what chemical concoction was used to aid in the swift demise of those kids.
And these young ones were not unfit or unhealthy prior to entering the hospital either. On the contrary. Sir John Trail, a member of the sub-committee, stated that he had “seen some of the children who were brought in at the moment, and that they were as fine children as ever he saw.” But between the diet, the living conditions and “The Bottle” they soon fell ill and died.
The Death Continues
Despite this report in 1797 the hospital was allowed to operate for almost another 40 years. And similar foundling hospitals in Britain, the USA and other locations continued operating up until the 1950′s, though of course not all of them had mortality rates as high as Dublin’s one. It is estimated that in it’s 131 years in operation, the Dublin Foundling Hospital caused the deaths of as many as 200,000 children. Their only crime was being born. Would they have had a better chance staying with their birth parents? Who knows, all we know is that they would not have been systematically euthanized by the state.
Thankfully in the part of the world where I live, and most of those reading this live, child mortality is nowhere near as high as it was back then. Illegitimacy is no longer the legal and religious issue it once was and so foundling hospitals are no longer required. However it would be wrong to think that humanity has “gotten better”. Right now similar and worse crimes are being committed against children across the globe in parts of Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Most of the time these crimes and abuses go on with the active, or passive consent of the worlds “powers”. The geography may shift. The crime scenes may relocate. But the war on children rages on as it has for centuries.
The New Way
Joseph Chilton Pearce
New, subtler forms of degradation of children are taking place right here, right now in the “free world”. Joseph Chilton Pearce, the world’s leading authority on child brain development psychology, takes a very grim view of the current standards of children’s education and the direction it is moving in. He states that the research shows how “Compared to children twenty years ago, the children we are looking at now are comprehending or registering information from their environment at eighty percent, which simply means they are twenty percent less consciously aware of where they are and what is happening around them. Secondly, the kind of stimulus that does break through the reticular activating system in the ancient reptilian brain, the brain stem, is only highly concentrated bursts of over-stimulation. That is, the only signals they’re really bringing in from their environment are those bursts of stimuli which are highly charged. If it’s sound, it must be a loud sound. If it’s touch, it must be an impact. If it’s visual, it must be intense.”
He goes on to give this shocking illustration, “One comparison is that twenty years ago a child or young person was able to differentiate 360 shades of red, and today are down to something like 130 shades, which means the subtleties are lost to the pure, heavy impact of red now necessary to penetrate the reticular system. Once we look into the whole developmental system, the implications are profound.”
Cycles of Trauma
Similarly more and more evidence shows that trauma can be experienced by children during childbirth, particularly in cases of induced deliveries, unnecessary c-sections, and drugged up mothers. This can leave the infant in a state of hyper vigilance and arousal in it’s pre vocal years resulting in hampered brain development during this crucial time. And sadly when these traumas present in children in the form of ADHD, anxiety and depression we then put them on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, trying to deal exclusively with the symptoms without any regard to the actual cause.
I know this is a heavy post, it’s meant to be. We live in a culture of mixed messages. All we hear is how important peace it, how important children are, how important their development is and yet we live in what, when looked at objectively, amounts to an infanticidal culture. This is reiterated time and time again, generation after generation. We as individuals and we as a society pass on our habits, beliefs, our biases, our hatreds, our bigotries to the young and the cycle continues. But what we can do, all of us, is to be aware of our own behavior around others, especially the young. Learn and teach meditation. Learn about trauma and how to heal it in ourselves and in the children. Learn about child brain development and about how education systems actually effect how they develop. Learn about how the media and marketing targets children. Learn about childbirth. Be disciplined but kind, always. Don’t ever abuse your power over a child. Don’t ever take out your own frustrations or inadequacies or jealousies on the young. Be the change you’d like to see in the world.
Be The Change
I don’t have kids. And I would never presume to tell anyone how to raise theirs. I have immense respect for those who take on that responsibility. I watched my parents raise my younger brother and helped out where I could, I know it’s not easy, not at all. I just hope that if we all take a little personal responsibility in our dealings with children, be they our own children or the children of others, we might just turn the tide, slowly. And do not be so quick to fill their heads with our “old person” garbage, let’s not be so quick to try and teach them, instead look out for what they have to teach us!
Thanks for reading, all the best
Rohan.
Related Articles:
- Interview With Joseph Chilton Pearce
- On Childhood Trauma
- Are over-zealous social services acting on orders to meet adoption quotas?
