Part 4
Advertising Infant Adoption - How Brokers Marketed Our Infant
Sons and Daughters, Redistributing Them to "Suitable,
High Class Applicants"
Having removed babies (if ever so cunningly) from their
mothers and families, "professionals" marketed
them calling them "prize babies" and "heartbreakers".
This agency claims they "harm no one", "save
the mother and her family from social blight" and cleans
the child from "taint of any form".
Click below to see
Actual Letter from the Fairmount Maternity
Home
This is a letter sent to a prospective adoptive parent
from the Fairmount Maternity Home in Kansas City, Missouri.
This article was published in the Search of Texas Quarterly
Update 11-1-52
Fairmount Maternity Hospital
Phone Harrison 4726
1414 East 27th Street Kansas City, Missouri
Mrs. (Private) 3017
(Private)] Tulsa, Oklahoma
We are pleased to advise you that we always
have desirable babies for adoption. Their ages range from
a few days old to several weeks, and we offer for adoption
only fine, healthy babies of good parentage.
We know you can make a satisfactory selection from these
babies. It is necessary to fill out the enclosed
application blank, return to us with three letters of reference,
and $5.00 for filing fee. We will advise you
when to come for the baby. Do not come until we notify you
to come. But we will do our best to get a lovely baby
for you at the earliest possible time. The court
prefers one letter from a minister, if possible, and the
other two from lawyers, doctors, bankers, or good business
men. Have the letters mention both you and your husband.
What the court wants to know is that you are people of good
moral standing and are physically and financially able to
care for your child. The adoption can be arranged in one
day if desired.
The total cost of adoption, including court costs and blood
test, is Forty-seven Dollars and Fifty cents
($47.50) By adopting a child from this institution, you
are assured of getting a healthy, normal child, which has
had a thorough medical examination and has been found free
from disease of every character. We also encourage you
to have your family doctor make an examination, and if he
finds anything irregular, return the baby to us.
Trusting we may have the pleasure of brightening up your
home with a little one, and that we may hear from you in
the immediate future. We are.
Very Truly Yours
Fairmount Maternity Home
Eve Hill Thomson -Superintendent
