War baby

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A war baby usually refers to any child born during wartime, particularly during World War I or World War II.

A particular connotation is often attached to the word — children born to civilian mothers but with foreign military fathers, especially soldiers. Even if this is the result of consensual sex, the casual nature of the relationship and lack of family planning means that this behaviour is usually condemned, especially if it involved "sleeping with the enemy". A particularly well-known group of war-babies are the Amerasians — a term coined by author Pearl S. Buck for people fathered abroad by U.S. servicemen to women of Asian nationalities, especially in the Vietnam War

• See War children

Even worse, it may also contain overtones of rape, resulting from ill-discipline among soldiers in conflict zones or the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, sometimes - as in Bangladesh, Bosnia and Darfur - with the express intent of conceiving children.

• see Systematic rape
• see Rape