¿Qué pasa en La Inclusa? The role of press scandals, doctors and public authorities in the evolution of La Inclusa de Madrid, 1890-1935

Traditionally, infants abandoned at foundling hospitals were identified as «bastards» and «children of vice» whose health, to all intents and purposes, reflected the moral sins of their parents and thus, led to unavoidable mortality. By late 19th century, several changes challenged that consideration: a growing emphasis on the importance of fighting infant mortality, the appearance of a new, medicalized, ideal of motherhood, the spread of new medical theories, the appearance of disciplines like Child Health, the construction of pediatric wards, and maternity hospitals. The consequences of these changes had their greatest impact at La Inclusa due to its location in the capital city, close to the decision-making centres and as focus of the interest of the national media. This article examines the role of the press and the medical profession in successively denouncing La Inclusa’s excess mortality during the period 1890-1935. By looking at daily press and medical publications, it sheds light on the uneven consequences of the press scandals denouncing foundlings’ extreme mortality in the period. The first scandal (1899-1900) faded without acknowledging any excess foundling mortality; the second (1918) was initiated by the doctors in charge but only produced some changes. The third scandal (1927) was instrumental in bringing about the changes that would turn a century-old institution in a state-of-the art medicalized centre and the change from debris of society to healthy children of foundlings. The effects of the press coverage were not restricted locally to foundlings in Madrid, and had a wider impact: by making the public aware of the dire situation of foundlings, they contributed to the development of legislation related to the fight against infant mortality and the control of mercenary breastfeeding (AU)

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La mortalidad infantil y sus causas en la inclusa de Toledo entre 1900-1910 / Mortalidade infantil e suas causas em crianças abandonados em um orfanato em Toledo (Espanha) entre 1900 e 1910 / The infant mortality and its causes in the foundling of Toledo between 1900-1910

La asistencia sanitaria se vinculaba a acciones benéficas hacia los pobres. Hasta el siglo XX fue frecuente el abandono de niños en inclusas, donde las cifras de mortalidad eran catastróficas. El objetivo de esta investigación es estudiar la mortalidad infantil y sus causas en los niños abandonados en la inclusa de Toledo entre 1900 y 1910. Es un trabajo histórico que analiza las fuentes primarias (libros de lactancias y destetes, con datos sobre el momento de la muerte y su causa) a partir de los presupuestos teóricos de la historia social y cultural. Excluidas las muertes perinatales, la tasa de mortalidad fue de 587 por mil. El 39 % murió antes de cumplir un año. La mortalidad en el grupo entre 1 y 5 años es la mitad de la que se da hasta el año de vida. Las causas de esta mortalidad fueron las enfermedades infecciosas, falta de desarrollo físico, eclampsia y atrepsia. La mortalidad infantil de estos niños era muy superior a la que tenía la provincia de Toledo en la misma fecha. La causalidad de los fallecimientos aparece vinculada a la falta de salubridad y de higiene tanto de la institución como de las familias de acogida (AU)

The study of the medical care is closely connected to the charitable actions with poor people. It was very common the abandonment of the children in the foundlings until the first decades of the 20th century. In them, the rates of infant mortality were catastrophic. The aim of this research is the study of the infant mortality and its causes in the abandoned children in the foundling of Toledo between 1910 and 1910. It is a historical research that analyses the primary sources (the books of breastfeeding and weaning of the institution have been used to collect the data because in them there are some references about the moment of the death and its etiology) using the principles of Social and Cultural History. If we exclude the perinatal deaths, the infant mortality rate was 537 per thousand. The39% died before being one year old. The mortality rate between one and five years is the half than in the other group of age. This mortality was caused by infections, rickets, «eclampsia and atrepsia». The mortality of these children was higher than the mortality of the kids who live in the county of Toledo in the same date. The causes of the death are related to the lack of healthiness and hygiene both in the institution and in the foster families (AU)

O estudo dos cuidados de saúde deve estar vinculado à acções benéficas dos pobres. Foi frequente até o século XX o abandono de crianças em orfanatos, onde as taxas de mortalidade infantil era muito altas. O objectivo desta pesquisa é estudar a mortalidade infantil e suas causas em crianças abandonados em um orfanato em Toledo (Espanha) entre 1900 e 1910. É um trabalho histórico que analisa as fontes primárias (livros de lactancias e desmame da instituição, porque recolher dados sobre o tempo de morte e sua etiologia) usando dos fundamentos teóricos da história social e cultural. Excluídas as mortes perinatais, a taxa de mortalidade foi de 587 por mil. O 39 % morreram no primeiro ano. A mortalidade no grupo entre 1 e 5 anos é metade do que no primeiro ano do vida. As causas de morte foram doenças infecciosas, a falta de desenvolvimento físico, eclampsia e atrepsia. A mortalidade infantil dessas crianças foi muito maior do que à mortalidade de crianças em Toledo na mesma data. As causas da morte parecem estar asociadas à falta de saneamento e higiene da instituição assim como das famílias de acolhimento (AU)

Los huérfanos del cólera morbus en Yucatán, 1833 / Orphans of cholera morbus in Yucatan, 1833

En este trabajo se discute el fenómeno de la orfandad en que quedaron muchos menores tras la epidemia de cólera que llegó a Yucatán en julio de 1833. se indaga el destino de los infates cuyos padres y madres fallecieron de cólera, el papel que tuvieron las redes de parentesco en darles cobijo y la influencia de Iglesia y Estado en esta problemática. Con base en fuentes de primera mano, se propone que la orfandad generada por el cólera sirvió como pretexto para que grupos económica y socialmente privilegiados se hicieran de fuerza laboral gratuita, ya para el servicio doméstico, ya para el trabajo en las haciendas. (AU)

Releasing mother's burdens: child abandonment and retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935.

In nineteenth-century Europe, the foundling hospital grew beyond its traditional purpose of mitigating the shame of unwed mothers by also permitting widows, widowers, and poor married couples to abandon their children there temporarily. In the Foundling Hospital of Madrid (FHM), this new short-term abandonment could be completely anonymous due to the implementation of a wheel­a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside­which remained open until 1929. The use of survival-analysis techniques to disentangle the determinants of retrieval in a discrete framework reveals important differences in the situations of the women who abandoned their children at the FHM, partly depending on whether they accessed it through the Maternity Hospital after giving birth or they accessed it directly. The evidence suggests that those who abandoned their children through the Maternity Hospital retrieved them only when they had attained a certain degree of economic stability, whereas those who abandoned otherwise did so just as soon as the immediate condition prompting the abandonment had improved.

Orphans and political instability.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the security implications of growing orphan populations, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Little has been written about the security implications of this especially vulnerable group of children. Are growing orphan populations associated with increases in political instability as has been suggested? METHOD: Using data from several sources, we employ regression analysis to test whether Sub-Saharan African countries with larger proportions of orphans and those with increasing orphan populations experience higher rates of political instability. RESULTS: We find that the increase in the orphan population is related to an increasing incidence of civil conflict, but do not find a similar relationship for the proportion of orphans. In addition, we find that the causes of orphanhood matter. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that increases in orphan populations (rather than simple proportions) are destabilizing. We suggest possible avenues for mediating the security risks posed by growing orphan populations.

The role of the Toronto Girls' Home, 1863-1910.

It has been suggested that the role of Ontario children's homes, who had for half a century been helping disadvantaged children, changed significantly and immediately under the 'Children's Protection Act of 1893'. However, the records of the girls admitted to Toronto Girls' Home from 1863 to 1910 suggest that this was not the case, for this home at least. For most of their history, their core clientele was the children of poor respectable parents dealing with a crisis or who could not both work and care for their children. Thus, although prior to 1893 they did also care for a significant number of neglected children, and after 1893 fewer such children were admitted, the Home continued for more than 20 years to help families as they always had, providing a form of family support for which the child protection system was not designed.

Herlihy's thesis revisited: some notes on investment in children in Medieval Muslim societies.

David Herlihy proposed "that we seek to evaluate, and on occasion even to measure, the psychological and economic investment which families and societies in the past were willing to make in their children" and suggested an alternative to both the "theory of discovered childhood [in Europe]," as introduced by Philippe Ariès and the notion of Lloyd DeMause that the historical evolution of child-parent relations in general formed a continuous and irreversible process of progress. This article shows that although we lack some of the archival sources that are essential for reconstructing the real lives of children in the premodern Mediterranean Muslim world, we are still able, with the "investment" criterion in mind, to assess attitudes toward children, at least in some defined periods of time and geographical regions.

Child fostering chains among Ovambo families in Namibia, Southern Africa.

Childcare across sub-Saharan Africa is often socially distributed among adults, with care by the biological mother being one of several options available for children. Children typically move within and outside of large extended kin networks. Based on an ethnographic study of four Ovambo families in Namibia, this article seeks to understand the cultural logic of fostering. Several themes that emerged from the study are discussed here, including the varied motivations of fostering, the cultural scripts of equality, and the rules of reciprocity in exchange, which are involved. Education shapes a mother's choices of care-giving and creates both a supply of children and a demand on households. The implications for HIV/AIDS orphans are discussed.

The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on kinship resources for orphans in Zimbabwe.

The extended family has been recognized as a major safety net for orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the mortality crisis associated with HIV/AIDS may drastically reduce the availability of relatives and thus undermine traditional forms of mutual support. In this article, the microsimulator SOCSIM is used to estimate and project quantities such as the number of living uncles, aunts, siblings, and grandparents available to orphans. The model is calibrated to the setting of Zimbabwe, using data from demographic and Health Surveys and estimates and projections of demographic rates from the United Nations. The article shows that there is a lag of more than ten years between the peak in orphanhood prevalence and the peak in scarcity of grandparents for orphans. The results indicate that a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic has a prolonged impact on children and orphans that extends well beyond the peak in mortality. A rapid increase in the number of orphans is followed by a steady reduction in the number of living grandparents for orphans. Consequently, the burden of double orphans (both of whose parents have died) is likely to shift to uncles and aunts. In Zimbabwe, the number of living uncles and aunts per double orphan decreased between 1980 and 2010, but it is expected to increase progressively during the next few decades. Changes in kinship structure have important social consequences that should be taken into account when seeking to address the lack of care for orphans.

Growing up without parents: socialisation and gender relations in orphaned-child-headed households in rural Zimbabwe.

The most distressing consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic's impact on children has been the development of child-headed households (CHHs). Child 'only' households challenge notions of the ideal home, family, and 'normal' childhood, as well as undermining international attempts to institute children's rights. The development of these households raises practical questions about how the children will cope without parental guidance during their childhood and how this experience will affect their adulthood. Drawing on ethnographic research with five child heads and their siblings, this article explores how orphaned children living in 'child only' households organise themselves in terms of household domestic and paid work roles, explores the socialisation of children by children and the negotiation of teenage girls' movement. Further, it examines whether the orphaned children are in some way attempting to 'mimic' previously existing family/household gender relations after parental death. The study showed that all members in the CHHs irrespective of age and gender are an integral part of household labour including food production. Although there is masculinisation of domestic chores in boys 'only' households, roles are distributed by age. On the other hand, households with a gender mix tended to follow traditional gender norms. Conflict often arose when boys controlled teenage girls' movement and sexuality. There is a need for further research on CHHs to better understand orphans' experiences, and to inform policy interventions.

[Kaiseijutsu and obstetrics in Osaka during the Yedo era: focusing mainly on the development of surgical operations in obstetrics].

In the Yedo era, the Kamigata area was the place of dispatch of new cultures and was the seat of the economy. However, because natural disasters happened frequently, the economic differential between the central area and the provinces grew wider. The families who suffered poverty sold their daughters to the licensed quarters. Moreover, among the general public, there were a lot of foundlings and women who had abortions. Indeed, we can find these phenomena throughout the Yedo era. Early in the era, such cases were regarded as very common; for example, in IHARA Saikaku works, which describes scenes in Osaka early in the Yedo era, there are a lot of descriptions of foundlings and women who had abortions as common social phenomena. However, in the middle of the era, these phenomena came to be considered sins, as they were in Saikaku's works. This transition period of conceptions about foundlings or abortions coincided with changes in technology in obstetrics. Early in the era when dystocia occurred, both mothers and babies could only be expected to die, and in the middle, after the invention of Kaiseijutsu, which was designed by KAGAWA Gen'etsu, obstetricians could help a lot of women in childbirth. However, when abortions came to be regarded as a sin, people accepted Kaiseijutsu because of the concept of life and because it could help women in childbed and babies as medicine, before everything else.

The business of relief work: a Victorian Quaker in Constantinople and her circle.

This article explores how Victorian notions of charity translated to evangelical mission projects in the Near East. Focusing on Quaker philanthropist Ann Mary Burgess, it traces the trade networks that she established to serve the Armenian community living in the Ottoman Empire. Burgess's vast network of supporters throughout Britain, Europe, and the Near East enabled her to fund relief projects using profits from goods produced by the orphans and widows served by the Friends' Constantinople Mission. The mapping of these networks reveals the evolving relationship between evangelicalism, the humanitarian movement, and the marketplace in imperial Britain.