Did anyone see the TV program yesterday on forced adoption?

It was very much a Catch 22 back then. The message was, a 'good' mother will want her child to have two, married, parents and so must give it up. Only a 'bad' mother would want to keep her baby. Awful.

The 60 s were not as swinging as people think.

A friend became pregnant in 1966. Abortion was illegal until the following year so she had what was called then a back street abortion. She was never able to have children after that. .

I was born in 1960. My birth mother married a man just before my birth who apparently was not my real father?? She then gave me up. I was adopted and it was rushed through a Crown Court for some strange reason. My godfather helped my adopted parents do this. I have no idea why. All have passed away now. Last year with the help of a Facebook forum l located my birth mother who had died in 2013. There the search ended. I do not know the real identity of my biological father.

I did see the programme and it made me go cold as this could have been me! I had my son in the United States (where I was working) and when I split from his father when he was about 10 months old, I brought him back to the UK. I had never got married so I was an unmarried mother and I had my families support but faced terrible prejudice. At one interview for an office job the older woman interviewing me, when she found out I was unmarried, said "sorry, we don't want people like you working here". Nonetheless my son is the best thing that ever happened to me.

My DH was adopted at 6 months. He found out, after his adoptive patents had both passed away, that the pregnancy was the result of a rape. He did contact his birth mother, via a solicitor, but although she wrote him a beautiful letter, she was not willing to meet and died a couple of years later. He has never fully processed this and has a fear of rejection which he can't resolve.

Not all Mums gave up their babies because they couldn't afford to keep them.

It was bloody awful. Parents being in on it as well is beyond belief. If they'd done that to me, I know we'd have no relationship after that ever again. I've lost babies through miscarriage. I'd never forgive them x

LitEve: Thank you. I did meet up with her when she was 30 and comforted by the fact that she's had a good life.

Some sad stories on here Droopydraws 😢
I was around in the 1960s when my friend's little sister "got herself pregnant" not sure how this is possible

Her DM helped her and she stayed at home. She later married and her husband adopted her baby. All very modern because even my mum, who I thought didn't care much what others thought, told us girls that having a baby when we weren't married would ruin our lives and that "no nice man would want to marry us"
Even back then I wondered how nice a man was if he wouldn't accept a wife with a baby.

Stigma was dreadful and still is in parts of the world.

My big sister (RIP) was 15 (in 1960) walked in to see my mother (who was divorced from our father) with her then boyfriend and announced she was pregnant and wanted they to get married when she was 16. Our mother said 'No bloody way! You can have the baby and we will raise it as part of the family but you are not getting married'
My sister's baby was born 3 months premature and it was touch and go whether the baby would survive, thankfully she did. I became an auntie aged 7. My sister then deliberately got pregnant again so our mother would have to let her get married. My sister and her husband and the two babies lived with us for another two years until they got a place of their own to live in. My sister went on to have 9 more children.

My parents arranged for me to go into an unmarried mother’s home at the age of 16. They said I would blacken their name if people found out. I had my baby in September 1965 and looked after her for 8 weeks, that was my punishment, as when the 8 weeks was up she was taken from me as they already had adoptive parents for her. We have since met up and I am pleased to say she had a wonderful mum and dad. I am 76 now and we are still in touch.

LexieBexie 💐
A friend had similar family pressure and like you, cared for her baby for 8 weeks. They found each other when the child was an adult. The adoption was happy, my friend met the adoptive parents of her now adult child - what a positive outcome nut how sad as well