Dublin: Deplorable Infant Death Rate At Navan Road Mother + Baby Home Revealed

More than 660 infants and children died in Pelletstownmother and baby home in Dublin during a seven-year period up to the end of March 1930, State records show.

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The reports also contain figures compiled by the Registrar General that show the mortality rate among “illegitimate” infants in 1925 and 1926 was five times that of infants born within marriage, something the departmental reports acknowledge as a “deplorable loss of life”.

Department of Local Government and Public Health reports show there were 662 deaths in the institution on the Navan Road between April 1st, 1923 and March 31st, 1930.

Four mothers died at Bessborough in the seven-year period up to the end of March, 1940, while seven died at Sean Ross Abbey in the same time period. In Manor House, eight mothers died in the six years to the end of March 1941. Details of the number of mothers who perished in other years are not available.

The department of local government and public health was aware the death rate among children born to unmarried mothers was unacceptably high. In its report for 1927, the department refers to figures compiled by the registrar general for 1925 and 1926 showing the mortality rate among what it called “illegitimate” infants was five times the rate of those born within marriage. A third of those who died failed to reach their first birthday.

This was acknowledged in the reports as a “deplorable” loss of life.

“It is recognised that illegitimate infants are handicapped by constitutional and environmental disadvantages, which tend to have a heavy incidence of infant mortality, but even when allowance has been made for these adverse factors, the death-rate of such infants is still disproportionately high in view of the experience in other countries,” the report says.

Due to the sporadic nature of the data in the departmental reports and the scant information they provide on the private mother and baby homes that were also in operation at the time, it is likely that the true number of deaths of women and their children will only come to light once the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, announced by the Government this month, completes its work.

One important unknown not covered in the reports is the number of children born to unmarried mothers who died in county homes.