Adoption: mother and child reunion
In the early Sixties, with contraceptive pills and the sexual revolution just around the corner, thousands of unmarried women were still forced to give up their babies for adoption
Three single mothers from that era, Janet Weaver, Hilary Dyer and Sheila Walker have all since been reunited with the children they reluctantly said goodbye to. Is it always a happy ending?The Adoption Reunion Handbook says most reunions do last: 76% of the people they interviewed were in touch with their birth mothers three years after initial contact and 55% after eight years. But most continued to relate mainly to their adoptive mothers; only 13% felt closer to their birth mother while 20% said they had an equally good relationship with both. According to The Adoption Reunion Handbook about half of all adopted people search for information about their origins, and 85% of those who find the records go on to search for a birth relative, usually the mother. However, the search is not always welcome: the handbook quotes a letter from a birth mother written to the intermediary who approached her about her daughter: “Please tell her to leave me alone. No good will come. Only hurt for her. No happy families which she would like. I don’t want to live my life thinking who is on the phone, at the door or what comes in the post. I have my rights to my privacy and I have made enquiries and there are things I can do to protect my own family. I have no intention of making contact or sending photos and I have no interest in having any back. I have no interest in her at all. I don’t care what happens in her life.” Written by Serena Allott
This article was created: 14 July 2006.
This article was last edited: 24 January 2007.
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