What is "baby farming"

Baby farming \Ba"by farm`ing\ The business of keeping a baby farm.

n. The business of keeping a baby farm.

Baby farming refers to the practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment in late- Victorian Era Britain and, less commonly, in Australia and the United States. If the infant was young, this usually included wet-nursing (breast-feeding by a woman not the mother). Some baby farmers "adopted" children for lump-sum payments, while others cared for infants for periodic payments.