History Main / BabyFactory

On rarer occasions men are also involved in this trope, usually as a result of a {{Gendercide}} forcing the survivors to be as engaged in the baby-making business as the women who carry the babies to term. Usually in these cases things are not as bad for the women, who because of large supply, have the choice of whether or not they participate in this process thanks to their relatively high GenderRarityValue.

* On ''{{Gor}}'' the Priest Kings are - unknown to human Goreans - an insectoid species with a queen in the insect sense; she's revered but doesn't have any actual power. The power of the high council is invested in the First Five Born (of which by the time we meet them there are only two left). The Mother dies in the thrid book, and the plot of the fourth book concerns recovery of the last female egg, so as to restart the sequence. (They already have a male.)

* Unfortunate Implication example: Pearl Jams' "Do The Evolution" music video.

* In many cultures around the world, it wasn't that long ago that women were viewed as little more than vessels for childbearing. Not every culture did this, and some did it more than others, but such a view did exist historically.

* On a related vein, in FascistItaly women were given medals for bearing many children, and soldiers were required to salute pregnant women.

* On a related vein, in FascistItaly, women were given medals for bearing many children, and soldiers were required to salute pregnant women.

* On a related vein, in Facist Italy, women were given medals for bearing many children, and soldiers were required to salute pregnant women.

* I remember hearing about a fifties sci-fi novel where the sole female crewmember commits a murder, and as punishment she is rendered brain-dead and kept as breeding stock.

** They did, however, encourage women to have children by giving them rewards for doing so. The more children they had, the bigger their rewards would be - some were even given medals for doing "great service to their country". While they weren't forced into it, to increase the birthrate, they made it worth the girl's while to get married to an SS soldier and have several children by him.

* According to {{Nazisploitation}} films and novels (even some mainstream fiction picked up the UrbanLegend, e.g. ''Bear Island'' by Alistair [=MacLean=]) ThoseWackyNazis would select racially pure German women to be impregnated by virile SS men, in order to create the MasterRace. In actuality while the Nazis did have an organisation that helped care for the offspring of SS members (even illegitimate children) with the goal of increasing the birth rate (which had fallen drastically due to the Great Depression) there was no 'breeding program'.

* ''Flash for Freedom!'' {{Flashman}} and the other crewmen on the slave ship are encouraged to sleep with as many female slaves as possible, as women pregnant with lighter skinned babies can be sold at a higher price. Oddly enough given his lechery, Flashman isn't particularly keen on the idea, and takes a single slave as his concubine instead.

* ''Flash for Freedom!'' Flashman and the other crewmen on the slave ship are encouraged to sleep with as many female slaves as possible, as women pregnant with lighter skinned babies can be sold at a higher price. Flashy, oddly enough, isn't particularly keen on the idea, and take a single slave as his concubine instead.

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* In ''WorldWarZ'' after the war finishes, the heavily depleted Holy Russian Empire uses women this way.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* In ''{{Warhammer}}'', Skaven females are still bloated baby-makers lacking intelligence or even adequate muscles to support moving their own girth out of their dens.

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* Unfortunate Implication example: Pearl Jams' "Do The Evolution" music video.

* In one episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Doctor Pulaski ends up telling two societies (one consisting of traditional Irishmen, and the other of slowly degenerating [[CloneDegeneration clones]]) that they must engage in widescale polygyny and polyandry in order to gain an appropriate amount of genetic diversity. One Irishwoman expresses disdain that they apparently have to modify the entire way their culture examines the family for the sake of some oddly defined scientific reasons, but ends up agreeing to go along with it.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''WorldWarZ'' after the war finishes, the heavily depleted Holy Russian Empire uses women this way.
* The Psions in the DCUniverse treat their females like this.

* Brood Mothers from ''DragonAge'' are this, NightmareFuel, and a MookMaker boss all in one.

!Examples:

* Kzinti females in KnownSpace are non-sentient, due to genetic engineering.
* Literal example: The Axlotl tanks in ''{{Dune}}'' are actually the females of the house Bene Tleilax.
* The purpose of the handmaids in TheHandmaidsTale is to provide this service. They're not particularly good at it, though, mostly because the authoritarian society they live in demands that the babies have a specific father, and the society in question is unwilling to acknowledge that the reason some wives can't get pregnant may have more to do with lazy sperm than a faulty ovary.
* On {{Gor}} the Priest Kings are - unknown to human Goreans - an insectoid species with a queen in the insect sense; she's revered but doesn't have any actual power. The power of the high council is invested in the First Five Born (of which by the time we meet them there are only two left). The Mother dies in the thrid book, and the plot of the fourth book concerns recovery of the last female egg, so as to restart the sequence. (They already have a male.)

* Jonathan Swift's famous essay, AModestProposal suggests farming women around Europe for babies to eat once they hit 12 months old as a means of dealing with recurrent famine problems.
* In Lois Lowry's TheGiver, girls are selected at the age of twelve to begin training as Birthmothers, producing offspring for the Community that are immediately taken away. Once they meet their quota, Birthmothers spend the rest of their lives as factory labourers.

* How Werewolves view women in the WomenOfTheOtherworld series, as a result of GenderEqualsBreed.

* Literal example: from ''{{Warhammer}}'', Skaven females are still bloated baby-makers lacking intelligence or even adequate muscles to support moving their own girth out of their dens.

* In one episode of StarTrekTheNextGeneration, Doctor Pulaski ends up telling two societies (one consisting of traditional Irishmen, and the other of slowly degenerating [[CloneDegeneration clones]]) that they must engage in widescale polygyny and polyandry in order to gain an appropriate amount of genetic diversity. One Irishwoman expresses disdain that they apparently have to modify the entire way their culture examines the family for the sake of some oddly defined scientific reasons, but ends up agreeing to go along with it.

* {{Sliders}}

* I seem to recall that in ''EarthFinalConflict'' Lili got PutOnABus to an alien baby factory, but I could be wrong about that.

* Brood Mothers from DragonAge are this, NightmareFuel, and a MookMaker boss all in one.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* [[HumansAreBastards Many]] [[TruthInTelevision societies]], throughout most of history, up to and including present day, have viewed women this way.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babyfactory_31.png

* [[HumansAreBastards Many societies]], throughout most of history, up to and including present day, have viewed women this way.

** The Cromaqs have to engage in this trope because their dimension lacks enough females to effectively propagate the race. Main character Wade ends up as one, and that's the last we hear of her.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Unfortunately the idea of human baby factories is not purely speculative. The rise of impersonal adoption made this idea quite appealing, as a baby on the open adoption market can ring in an impressive amount of money in RealLife. Modern international adoption laws were designed explicitly to combat such practices, although such events still persist in the world today.
* Termite queens are quite large, but utterly helpless for anything other than producing phenomenal numbers of eggs.
* Ceaucesceau's Romania. Women were expected to get pregnant at least once every three years and never use contraception or abort.

* Brood Mothers from DragonAge are this, NightmareFuel, and a MookMaker boss all in one.

In some modern works a woman actually sees herself as one of these, and uses the babies she can make as fulfillment in the more traditional BabiesMakeEverythingBetter vein. [[UnfortunateImplications This doesn't exactly make things better]]. Can result in TooManyBabies. MarsNeedsWomen may be involved if there are aliens in the story.

See also: MotherOfAThousandYoung.

* Unfortunately the idea of baby factories is not purely speculative. The rise of impersonal adoption made this idea quite appealing, as a baby on the open adoption market can ring in an impressive amount of money in RealLife. Modern international adoption laws were designed explicitly to combat such practices, although such events still persist in the world today.

* Literal example: ''{{Dune}}'' the Axlotl tank was actually a female of the house Bene Tleilax.

* Brood Mothers from DragonAge are this, NightmareFuel, and a MookMaker boss all in one.

[[AC:{{Web

* Jonathan Swift's famous essay, "A Modest Proposal," suggests farming women around Europe for babies to eat once they hit 12 months old as a means of dealing with recurrent famine problems.

** Unfortunately the idea of baby factories is not purely speculative. The rise of impersonal adoption made this idea quite appealing, as a baby on the open adoption market can ring in an impressive amount of money in RealLife. Modern international adoption laws were designed explicitly to combat such practices, although such events still persist in the world today.