Stolen Babies (BBC Iplayer)

I would say the same thing to whoever made the apology Doodledog just happened to be Starmer. If some people thought it was helpful then I'm happy for them. For me it was just meaningless publicity courting.

I watched.
Starmer’s apology wouldn’t have righted the life stolen from me!
Tragic what people in power do!!!

It made me so angry 😠. How cruelly they were treated 😒

NanKate

Yes very moving programme. These young women were treated abysmally.
Why were the unmarried girls always blamed and not the men?

Because it was every decent girl's own responsibility to remain a chaste virgin until she married.

I am not saying I approve of landing women with all the responsiblity, but that was the thinking behind blaming the girl.

To be fair, there were many families who did not approve of their sons "sowing wild oats" and many parents, especially fathers, who disapproved of any grown man who slept with a young girl he either could not or would not marry.

Watched it when it was broadcast with DH it was so sad and horrific what those girls went through. Even DH was moved and we both said frightening to think this all took place in UK in our lifetime.

Have only heard snippets of the programme. In early 60s two 16 year old in my neighbourhood had babies. Neither of the babies were taken for adoption. Both raised by young Mum and family. The baby boy was given a name I had never heard given to a boy- Karl. I thought it was Carol! There were obviously some families who didn't feel shame.

4allweknow

Have only heard snippets of the programme. In early 60s two 16 year old in my neighbourhood had babies. Neither of the babies were taken for adoption. Both raised by young Mum and family. The baby boy was given a name I had never heard given to a boy- Karl. I thought it was Carol! There were obviously some families who didn't feel shame.

Well done those families that had enough love in their hearts to welcome a new life and understanding and forgiveness for their daughters.

I haven’t watched yet but will eventually.
My mother was one of these unmarried mothers; pregnant at 17 and sent to a mother and baby home. I was adopted at six weeks and my birth mother had to physically hand me to my adoptive mother. So cruel.
I had a good childhood but needed to get in touch with my birth mother after having my own children over 30 years ago.
Being adopted in this way has affected my life to this day.

Doodledog

I don’t know how it helps to get apologies from those who weren’t involved in whatever is being apologised for either, but there were a lot of women who wanted one, and they were in the public gallery when Starmer apologised.

If it helped them, the fact that I don’t understand why is matterless. It took a couple of minutes and cost nothing. How that can be used as yet another way to snipe at Starmer escapes me. Talk about scraping the barrel.

To Doodledog,
Yes I can see that the non-involvement of the Apologiser is an issue and if it neither interests nor consoles those involved then that is their right to feel that way.
For those who wanted the apology then at the very least they got one.
My interest in the apology wasn't really the apologiser (although I remain a Starmer fan) more the apology itself.

Susie42

Did anyone watch this last night? It was heartbreaking to hear stories of young unmarried mothers who had had their babies taken away for adoption. One lass had been raped by her teacher and had not been believed and he was found not guilty.

Yes , I watched it. I have seen a lot of that sort of thing before particularly in the Magdalene laundries.It's so sad, I'm glad that some of the women were reunited with their children.

I like Long Lost Family and a lot of the participants were forced to give up children.

Stolen babies and he way they were treated was because of the belief by many christians that
all men are conceived and born in sin, a central tenet of Christian theology, emphasizing the universal need for salvation. It serves as a reminder of humanity's fallen state and the profound grace offered through Jesus Christ.

I remember a couple of girls at my school just disappeared in the late 60s and the rumour was they were pregnant. They didn’t return to school.

I have two friends who were adopted. One has never been
Interested in tracing her birth mother. The other one tried but her birth mother was not interested.

Another friend’s older sister became pregnant at 16 and had her baby at 17. This was late 60s. She was encouraged to marry the young father. Her MIL agreed to help out with childcare so she could study law. She eventually qualified as a solicitor but her marriage fizzled out. She worked hard and became a senior partner in her law firm but never had any more children. Her daughter also had a baby at 16 and then HER daughter was another very young Mum. She became a great grandma before she was 50 I believe.

I was in absolute terror of pregnancy in my girlhood. Suffice to say I was a virgin when I married at 24. Thé Swinging Sixties bypassed our community! I do now regret not sleeping with all the lovely young men I went out with in those days! I was never pressured though of course skated on thin ice a few times! Those poor girls - it’s totally natural and made to seem a sin. Now look at the birthrate!

There were 2 teenage pregnancies at my school. One girl was 14, another was 16. The 14 year old left suddenly. I saw the 16 year old 10 years later, still with the boy, now her husband. The son was 10, I was only 26 then, just married. My sister in law was 19, fell pregnant, then got married to my husband's brother, but sadly lost that baby. I never told my mother for fear that she would snub them. As a result, my mother didn't cut her off, and she became life long friends with them through me, and a godmother to her third child, my nephew. My mother never knew. She had such a negatove view, it wad better that way. When we hosted Getman students in their teens in the 1990/2000s, they found the high number of teenage mothers in our nearest town shocking. The girl has always carried the blame, since Eve, and that attitude still lives on unfortunately. So wrong.

Yes - I watched it. Up to now the concentration has been on the Catholic Church's role in these forced adoptions in Ireland, while so much was going on in this side of the water. So much heartache, so much judgement and so much blaming women when men got off 'blameless'.
Still going on in the world - in places where women who are raped are ostracised by their own families and community. Men, the rapists, are not blamed at all.

I was particularly sorry for the schoolgirl whose teacher got her pregnant but was never prosecuted, sacked or anything. All the blame was on her but as she said it was sex without her consent. I call that rape.

He was very lucky and I imagine, carried on his life with no concerns. Makes you wonder what person in authority could blame a schoolgirl over an adult male.

Let's not forget the women who were institutionalised as moral defectives after having illegitimate children. Sadly the majority of them were there for years and couldn't really cope with the outside world when things changed. I met several women like this in the early days of my nursing career.