Bourdeaux possesses a Hospice de la Maternité, or Lying-in Hospital, and a society, founded by private benefactions, for the same purpose.
The Lying-in Hospital is an asylum in which any woman who presents herself in the ninth month of her pregnancy, whatever may be her state, her country or condition, is admitted without difficulty, without question or inquiry, under the name she pleases, and in such a manner, that the fear of being known or discovered may not prevent those who wish to remain unknown from benefiting by the institution.
Women admitted at the ninth month remain in the establishment till they have completely recovered their lying-in. (p. 231.)
The number of those women, either lying-in or subsisted in the hospital, varies from 35 to 60, and their stay is about 30 days. The births amount annually from 400 to 450; upon this number, 30 or 40 at most are kept and suckled by their mothers; the rest are abandoned and sent to the Foundling Hospital.
Among these inmates, about one-fifth is composed of married women, who have no means of being confined at home; two-fifths of young girls of the town, chiefly servants; the rest of peasants, who leave their homes in order not to be discovered.
Illegitimate children deserted by their parents, and which are deposited at the Foundling Hospital, are clothed and nourished by women in the institution, till a nurse out of it can be procured.
These children, after being suckled, remain with their nurses till the age of 12 years. At this age, if the individuals who have brought them up do not wish to keep them gratuitously till their majority and give them a trade, they return to the hospital, and they then cease to be at the charge of the special funds. The establishment itself provides for their expenses; and until they can be placed as apprentices, they receive, in the Bourdeaux hospital, the rudiments of reading and writing, and they are taught some trade.
Once placed as apprentices, they remain with the master till the age of 21, when they are to shift for themselves.
Those that cannot be placed, or are infirm, remain in the hospital, and form a sort of permanent population there.
Children whose parents are known, and who are living, but have either disappeared or are confined, are received in the same way as foundlings, the mode of admission differing only. This must be granted by the prefect after an inquest. For the remainder, they enjoy the same advantages as the foundlings.