Complex sentence: It judged that most of the infants were sourced from secret lying-in houses, for a usually insufficient fee, and given into the care of baby farmers--on the strict understanding that the mother would never see her child again.
Split into simpler sentences: It judged that most of the infants were sourced from secret lying-in houses, and for a usually insufficient fee, given into the care of baby farmers. All this was on the strict understanding that the mother would never see her child again.