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Releasing Mother's Burdens: Child Abandonment and Retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935

Revuelta Eugercios, Bárbara LU (2012) In Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42(4). p.645-672
Abstract
Abstract in Undetermined
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 wheel—a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside—which 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,... (More)
Abstract in Undetermined
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 wheel—a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside—which 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
volume
42
issue
4
pages
645 - 672
publisher
MIT Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000300453600007
  • scopus:84861374484
ISSN
1530-9169
DOI
10.1162/JINH_a_00308
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e22823d3-a8f8-4c8c-bc80-9c8c6ff15b23 (old id 2403397)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:57:16
date last changed
2022-04-12 00:30:22
@article{e22823d3-a8f8-4c8c-bc80-9c8c6ff15b23,
  abstract     = {{Abstract in Undetermined<br/>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 wheel—a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside—which 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.}},
  author       = {{Revuelta Eugercios, Bárbara}},
  issn         = {{1530-9169}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{645--672}},
  publisher    = {{MIT Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Interdisciplinary History}},
  title        = {{Releasing Mother's Burdens: Child Abandonment and Retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_00308}},
  doi          = {{10.1162/JINH_a_00308}},
  volume       = {{42}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}