The Unbaby
In the Republic of Gilead, the term "Unbaby" designates a child born dead, with severe deformities, or otherwise non-viable. It is a category of loss that carries immense social and theological weight, functioning as a sign of divine judgment and a source of deep personal shame for the families involved. The prevalence of Unbabies is a dark undercurrent in Gilead's obsessive drive for reproduction, a constant reminder of the regime's failure to deliver on its promise of a fertile, blessed future.
Definition and Social Context
The Unbaby is a whispered-about concept, not formally taught in schools but known through rumor and hushed conversations among the Marthas and Wives. It represents a catastrophic failure of the Handmaid system, the regime's central mechanism for repopulation. The birth of an Unbaby is a devastating event, not only for the loss of the child but for the stigma it attaches to the household. It is seen as a negative comment by God upon the mother, a mark of her unworthiness or sin. The fear of producing an Unbaby is a constant pressure on Handmaids and the families that employ them, as it can derail a Commander's hopes for an heir and taint a Wife's social standing.
Occurrences and Consequences
The first explicit mention of an Unbaby in the narrative comes from Zilla, a Martha in Commander Kyle's household. When Agnes Jemima asks about the danger period in a Handmaid's pregnancy, Zilla explains that the first three months are critical because "if it's an Unbaby, that's when it might...that's when it might get born too early" and die. This casual explanation reveals the normalized dread surrounding the phenomenon. The most devastating example is the birth of Commander Judd's child to his fourth Wife. The file on Judd, discovered by Agnes, records that the baby was an Unbaby with two heads that lodged in the birth canal. Judd refused permission for a surgical intervention, piously claiming that "nothing could be done" because there was still a fetal heartbeat. This decision led to the Wife's death from deliberately induced septicemia or shock, revealing how the Unbaby could be weaponized by a powerful Commander to dispose of an unwanted spouse. Becka's own Handmaid gave birth to a baby girl without a brain, an event that deeply upset Becka, who had hoped for a sister. The Handmaid's fate after such a birth is left ominously unclear, but the implication is that she is considered a failed vessel.
Thematic Significance
The Unbaby is a powerful symbol of the corruption and failure at the heart of Gilead's theocratic project. The regime's entire social order is built on the premise of a divinely ordained fertility, yet it is plagued by a high rate of infant mortality and deformity. This contradiction is never openly acknowledged; instead, the blame is placed on individual women—the Handmaids or the Wives—who are deemed unworthy. The Unbaby thus functions as a tool of control, a constant threat that keeps women in a state of fear and submission. It also reveals the regime's profound hypocrisy: while it claims to value life above all, it is willing to sacrifice both mothers and children to maintain its ideological purity and the power of its elite. The Unbaby is the regime's dirty secret, a biological rebuke to its theological claims, and a testament to the human cost of its brutal reproductive policies.
