Southfield Maternity Home, Bowden

[suds]

Hello

My mother had a stillborn baby at Southfield during the war. My brother is older than me and therefore has a longer memory and he says that, when passing St Margaret's Church on the bus, our mother would say that her stillborn baby was buried there. My brother has looked into it but has found no evidence/record.

It may be that it was common practice to bury stillborn babies born at Southfield at St Margarets.

Suds

[stitchwitch]

Thanks for that, Suds, I was wondering about St Margaret's. I'm steeling myself to ring the NHS Trust lot tomorrow, so I'll try the Parish Centre too and see if anyone there knows or can find anything. I suspect, as has been suggested by others, that he was tucked up with some unsuspecting stranger being planted at the same time. Still, we shall see. I know the date of death and the fact that there was a PM so you never know. Failing that I'll have to just tell Mum that's where he is. It'll be close enough.

To be honest, when at first they couldn't find him in the Stillbirth register I was beginning to wonder if there was any trace of him at all. Thank goodness attitudes have softened since then.

Stitch

[whitesalmon57]

I was born at Southfields in Bowden on Boxing Day 1957 - sadly my twin sister was stillborn and throughout my life I have always wanted to know what happened to her.  58 years later I still feel a connection with her, after all we were created and spent 9 months together until we were cruelly separated for ever.  Despite mine, my parents and my older brother's loss I had a happy childhood but to this day have felt something huge missing in my life - I always will.

To be honest I have even thought that maybe, just maybe she didn't die and that maybe she was adopted at birth - Watching Long Lost Family on ITV has made me do a bit of investigating and I ended up on the Deceased Online website  ( https://www.deceasedonline.com/servlet/GSDOSearch )  and after searching (and paying a small fee) I sadly finally found that she was buried 2 days after her birth on the 28th December 1957 at Hale Cemetery.  The Register of Burials showed by mother's name and next to her name is "SBC" (Still Born Child).

All I can now hope is that she is at peace with whoever shares her grave - but I now know where I can find her last resting place and go back to 'see' her and be close.

After posting this message I Googled Southfields Maternity Home and indeed it is now luxurious apartments as can be seen from the link for one of the properties for sale  https://www.onthemarket.com/details/1136682/

[stitchwitch]

Thank you so very very much for that information. I was led straight to the details for my brother. This is something I have been trying to ascertain for many years, both for myself and my mother. Unfortunately my sister passed before I could solve the puzzle. Mum isn't well enough to travel there but now I can go and take photographs for her. She has never known what happened to her son.

Thank you once again

[maybird]

My older sister and I were both born at Southfields in 1963 & 1964.  Our brother was born there in November 1961 but sadly died a few minutes after birth.  I believe he was buried in an unmarked communal grave at Hale Road Cemetery in Altrincham.  My mum says this was all arranged by Southfields.

[LizzieW]

maybird - Welcome to Rootschat.

Sadly, for many years until, I guess the late 1970s/early 1980s, stillborn babies were just taken from the mothers, who may not even have seen them, and sent for burial.  It would be unusual for them to be put in an unmarked communal grave at that time - although it probably happened earlier in the 1900s and previous centuries - the babies were usually put into the coffin of someone else who was being buried.  I think the feeling was that they would, in that way, be given a Christian burial alongside the other person in the coffin.

Of course, nowadays, both parents are able to dress and cuddle their stillborn baby (or babies who die soon after birth) and make their own funeral arrangements if they wish to.

Lizzie

[dawnsh]

I had a look at some of the Hale burial registers at deceasedonline, particulary July 1955.

There were 3 burials on that page of infants or stillborn children, all buried in plot A3 Q, 2 were recorded as stillborns, the 3rd only 9 hours. Looking back to 1951 the same plot was being used so I am presuming, without contacting the cemetery, that they have a separate area for the burials of children and stillborns.

I know I've mentioned it elsewhere, but my father, a funeral director since the late 1950's has never buried an infant or stillborn in the coffin of another unless the mother had died in childbirth.

I'm not saying it didn't happen historically, but I would have thought rarely in my lifetime. There are too many rules and regulations regarding burials, and lately cremations.

[dawnsh]

If anyone finds this message in the future and wants me to check for a burial, please pm me with the surname and names of the parents and the date, even if it's approximate, and I'll have a look.

[LizzieW]

dawnsh - that's interesting, certainly when I trained as a midwife in Derby in the early 1970s, the porters always took the stillborn babies away.  I was horrified and thought they were going to an incinerator, but I was told they were put in coffins with other people who'd recently died.  This is what I've thought over the years.

I've also sent you a pm

Lizzie