top of page

PROTESTANT HOME FOR BABIES

 

 

Protestant Home for Babies was an adoption and maternity home located in the historical Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana. PHB was established in 1926 by community women seeking to provide a shelter for destitute infants. In 1959, maternity services were added to provide short term shelter for young pregnant women. The shelter continued to provide for adoptable and homeless infants. By 1974 the community's needs for maternity home services decreased and the Board of Directors discontinued the maternity and infant shelter. A group home was established for adolescent girls in need of a nurturing home environment. In 1979, the agency's name was officially changed from Protestant Home for Babies to Raintree Services.

These mansions stand in the center of large grounds and rise, garlanded with roses, out of the midst of swelling masses of shining green foliage and many-colored blossoms. No houses could well be in better harmony with their surroundings, or more pleasing to the eye.


— Mark Twain, speaking of the Garden District.

Protestant Home for Babies, New Orleans

Garden District

SEARCH

Adoption Triad.

 

Today, adoptees and birth-families from the Protestant Home for Babies, and other maternity homes all over Louisiana and the United States, search for each other on the Internet. Many states still maintain sealed records and continue to keep this information sealed, even after the adoptee and the birth parents reunite by other means.
 

Several states have measures allowing adult adoptees access to their birth records, original birth certificates, or provide an intermediary to assist in a possible search and reunion.

 

On June 3, 2022, Louisiana HB450 granted adoptees access to an uncertified copy of their original birth certificate.

The Protestant Home for Babies house located in the Garden District of New Orleans

Protestant Home for Babies
1233 Eighth Street
New Orleans, LA 70115

"

"To whom does a birth certificate belong?"

 

― Kenny Tucker, Protestant Home for Babies Adoptee

"Fear keeps us bound, Truth sets us free."

― LA Rep. Beryl Amedee,

HB450 

"

Protestant Home for Babies Memoirs
Contact Protestant Home for Babies
Louisiana Adoption Search and Reunion
bottom of page