I had a baby there in 1960 and I am neither Jewish, nor Catholic. It was an ordinary Maternity Home, but the matron took in unmarried pregnant girls and used them as unpaid staff prior to the birth of their babies. Fortunately for me, there were already too many pregnant girls in the maternity home acting as skivvies for the matron and staff when I was pregnant, so I was sent to stay with a lovely lady and her two young sons until I went into labour, when I was taken to Doriscourt. My baby was born on 13 May 1960 and I left her there when my parents came to take me home about 20 May 1960.
Happily, in about 2005, my daughter found me and her adopted father was an amateur photographer who had photographed her life from the day they took her from the maternity home to 2005 when she contacted me. Her adoptive parents drove from Staffordshire to the home and were just given my baby.
For years I worried about this private adoption, but fortunately, my daughter had a good life with wonderful parents, who were so worried about the way they'd obtained a baby they went straight to the social services department (or whatever it was called in 1960) to tell them they had a baby they wanted to adopt. Unlike today, they were allowed to keep the baby without too much fuss and just worried until they knew I'd signed the adoption papers.
You might be interested in the following court case involving Doris Court and an apparent Jewish baby.
http://chaimsimons.net/B.html one sentence is particularly interesting:
"This establishment was mainly a nursing home but it was also known that unmarried mothers could go there and receive help regarding the birth of their babies and that if they so wished, the matron, Miss W, would make arrangements for the baby to be placed for adoption"
In fact, as being an unmarried mother was a stigma in 1960, girls like myself were told that adoption was the best option for the baby. Not only that, but I was told by the Matron that when I signed the adoption papers as was required by law, I had to tell the adoption officer that I had decided to have the baby adopted without coercian and that I had chosen the parents myself.
Unlike 19 year olds today, I (and the other girls in the home) just went along with this without querying it.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the article, you will see that you can click on a link to Selected Documents Quoted in Paper. If you click on "to view" you will see some newspaper cuttings. Amongst the articles is a comment that it was believed the Matron ran a private maternity service there from 1951 to 1967, I think it probably was a private maternity home which is why I and the other girls like me were there - our parents could probably pay towards the costs - but I'm certain the Matron also ran a private adoption service. Whether that was illegal in the 1950s and 1960s I don't know, but I would guess it was.
Lizzie