This article examines how unmarried mothers’ bodies are constructed, from pregnancy to the after-birth, in two Aotearoa New Zealand Magdalene Bildungsromane. Magdalenism is a social structure which controlled women and girls’ femininity and sexuality in Western Europe and settler colonies from the 1640s to the 1990s. Whether in Magdalene Asylums or Mother and Baby “Homes,” Magdalene “penitents” and their children endured institutional discriminations based on their gender, class, ethnicity, and abilities. After a brief overview of Magdalenism, this chapter will observe Magdalene trauma-telling under the generic lens of the female Bildungsroman. It will study the social construction of unwed mothers as social pariahs, obstetrical violence, and (il)legal adoption practices. Aotearoa-based trauma theories will be adopted to analyze both novels, especially Sir Mason Durie’s te whare tapa wha¯ (the four-walled house) which conceptualizes how Māori envision health, and mana wa¯hine (women’s power/charisma/authority) which is a Ma¯ori feminist philosophical movement.