What is a "Birthmother"?

A "Birthmother" in The Giver is a woman who the community assigns to bear children, but she does not raise the babies or keep any bond with them.

Children in Jonas’s community are not born into ordinary families. The Committee of Elders controls family life: it matches spouses, assigns children to family units, names babies, and chooses each person’s career. Women assigned as Birthmothers give birth to "newchildren," and those babies are later named and assigned to approved families at the Ceremony of One. Each family unit is allowed one male child and one female child.

The job is treated as low-status, even though Lily briefly thinks it sounds appealing because Birthmothers get better food and do little work. Jonas’s mother corrects her sharply, explaining that Birthmothers never see the children they give birth to. After three years and three babies, they become Laborers, and Jonas’s mother says there is no honor in either role.

The Birthmother role shows how completely the community separates reproduction from love, choice, and family attachment. A woman’s body is used for the practical purpose of producing children, while parenting is turned into an assignment that the Elders oversee. This separation fits the larger pattern of The Giver: the community removes strong human bonds in order to preserve order and "Sameness."