Do People today understand the experience of the surrendering mother during the Era of Mass Surrender?

Question

The EMS period from WW2 to 1973... that would include everything prior to and including surrender or the termination of rights. It is not the adoption. Can it be understood by today's adopter or adopted adult ? Can it be understood by the general public? Would the graphic details of the methods used make it easier to comprehend?

Answer 1

Unless you have lived it, I don't think anyone can truly understand what it was like back then.  

Answer 2

Dear Sly,

I think many people today do not understand adoption at all, much less the atrocities and human rights violations that occurred during the EMS/BSE. Adoption has been "bastardized" from its original meaning/purposes into an industry cake covered in advertising/PR icing. Adoption has been promoted and "Disney-ized" for mass consumption.

Many people see adoption only as it is presented in the media (Juno, celeb adoptions, etc.) or the shiny, glossy ADS on agency websites or pamphlets. Public s*x/reproductive education and programs are still sorely and sadly lacking in honesty and genuine assistance. Money has overtaken compassion and children have become commodities rather than people. The list goes on...

While there are some of us who are trying to educate ourselves and others on what really goes on/has gone on, our voices are often stifled or shouted over by those who gain from adoption as it stands. Unfortunately, their voices are often more well funded and widely heard than ours.

As to the EMS/BSE, I will never fully understand how people can be so wretched and cruel to one another as they were to these women and children. I can say that I can identify with some of the pain of the Mothers as I am a First Mother myself, but my mistreatment was different and therefore, I will never be able to truly know how it was. I imagine I would have died had I suffered that kind of inhumane treatment. My heart hurts thinking about how horrible it must have been for these women and girls. I have the utmost respect for these survivors of such cruel abuse and violation. I wish I could wave that magic wand we talk about on here so often...

The horrifying details of this shameful time in adoption history should be known. They are equivalant to the evidence of a public crime and everyone should know what really went on or they will be glossed over and forgotten and set us up to repeat history. (Those who do not know histroy...) I do feel that the details and effects of the EMS/BSE on its victims are comparable to the victims of the holocaust, slavery, eugenics, etc. People should never be treated like less than people...

I wish more people would take the time to learn about the history of adoption (history at all for that matter). I hope that all of the victims of the EMS/BSE (and every other humanitarian tragedy/injustice) are able to someday find a little peace. I hope that many of them, like youself will find the stregnth to speak out about their experiences. That they will never shut up until the majority understands and we can prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

I hope my answer makes sense. I get upset when I think about this subject - it tends to make me cry (I tend to internalize) and I get the things I want to say a bit scrambled. Sly, I have the greatest respect for you and appreciate your voice more than you know.

(((SLY)))

Answer 3

I don't believe a lot of people are aware of the expectations and coercion that went on during that time.  I know I wasn't.  I've noticed more and more that even the media occasionally touches on it now, though.  It is not a history we should want to repeat.

Sure, there are those who will always want to believe it didn't happen.  There are those who call the Holocaust a "conspiracy theory."  But, for those women who experienced things such as being threatened, drugged during and after giving birth, blindfolded while giving birth -- all to get get them to sign a relinquishment form -- the painful memories linger and the loss remains so real.  For some who still managed to keep from signing, their babies were taken anyway, and they were told the children died.

In many states, testimony cannot be taken by witnesses under such conditions as these women were placed.  It is not considered admissible.  Yet, women were placed in these conditions specifically to get them to sign away their own flesh and blood.  These were not abusive or destitute women who were proven incapable of raising their children.  They were simply unmarried.  That was their crime.

Answer 4

Does this have anything to do w/the movie "the magdalene sisters". All I know about it was that it was around the same period you are referring to in Ireland. It was probably one of the most heartwrenching movies I've ever seen.

Answer 5

no, i don'tt think people truly understand. especially in the U.S.

i am at the tail end of the baby scoop era. i was born in 72, but i was not part of the conspiracy that was going on back then. my mother gave me up willingly. and for very good reasons.

she was lucky-she didn't have someone lying to her and making false promises. it was all very up front.

as for the 'anti adoption extremists' i just read about-i laugh at this. its so easy for people to cover their ears and eyes and pretend it never happened. makes them feel better. well, the truth hurts sometimes, but it doesnt change the fact that it is the truth.

thousands were robbed of their children, told they were dead, other awful stories. it happened. its wrong. and if the general population took the time to read, they would be horrified. i know i was when i first found out about it.

most of us are not anti adoption-we are fighting for the rights of ourselves and the future adoptees. reform is needed, not a complete black out on adoption.

Answer 6

You know what?  to be perfectly truthful I never really understood the experience of the surrendering women of my mother's era until just recently.

I've been educated by the internet stories of the women who are still living with the fallout of those times and by reading "The Girls Who Went Away" and "Half a Million Women".  Even then there was still a little part fo me that thought what I was reading was just so awful it couldn't possibly be true.  I didn't want it to be true.

What really convinced me and made me understand was actually speaking, face-to-face with surrendering mothers and hearing more and more stories that were so similar.

Growing up I just felt I was unwanted and tossed aside.   Knowing what I know now there has been alot of healing for me but at the same time I feel the pain of those brave women who survived those brutal times.

It's just so awful.  I think people don't want to understand.   In fact some people I've come across here on Y/A have been quite nasty about it saying that we're all living in the past and the BSE is over.   I know it's not over, not by a long way.  The people involved are still very much alive and living the consequences and I'm sorry.

ETA:   Anyone else think Suzy Sunshine is talking out of her ****?

Answer 7

Sadly - especially in the US - many don't even know about the 'Baby Scoop Era' - or they dismiss it as make-believe.

In Australia - mothers in the state of NSW went to court and actually received an apology from the State Government for the horrible practices of the era in procuring thousands of babies for the adoption market of the time.

Have you heard of the Australian documentary - 'Gone To A Good Home'.

(it's been shown here twice on free-to-air TV so far - and is available for purchase on DVD)

http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/defa...

I'd recommend it - it's very good.

I don't know if you'll ever get it on TV in the USA. The NCFA would lobby against it - and would probably fight to have it banned. They would be perhaps a tad scared that the content might put a dent in their million dollar adoption industry.

Some good links on the Baby Scoop Era -

http://www.babyscoopera.com/

http://www.originsnsw.com/law/

Answer 8

Suzy Sunshine is either a social worker or a person who has adopted. Suzy Sunshine definitely has not done her homework in regards to the many Civil and Human Rights that were violated, denied to young unmarried mothers during the BSE/EMS, those years of Post WWII thru 1973. This time period was definitely the time that Mass Surrenders were, for the greatest majority of young unmarried mothers, taken under force, coercion and duress. Suzy Sunshine evidently doesn't know that some of us now Senior, former young unwed mothers, have been able to obtain our medical records. Those medical records tell a lot, that previously even the mother herself, did not know! The medical records are not about 'genetic/hereditary' diseases, but rather about the medical practices we suffered thru, especially during L&D and post-partum. My medical records PROVE that I was heavily drugged when my signature was taken, my supposedly 'voluntary' signature for surrender. I also now have in my possession a copy of the surrender document. There is no witness signature (as proscribed by law in 1964), no notary stamp (also proscribed by my state law) and the date of my signature and the date of my discharge from the hospital do no coincide. Rather it most noticably appears that the date on my surrender document was 'post-dated'...when in fact I signed those papers while lying in my hospital bed. Amazing what these records can reveal..and both of my daughters have agreed that I would have been 'stoned' when my signature was taken. One daughter is a doctor, the other is a R.N. I trust their medically educated opinions! Lots of bad things happened to a lot of good young women back in that time...there only crime...being pregnant and unmarried. The Shame was never ours to bear....the Shame has always belonged to the professionals and semi-professionals who actively participated in and/or condoned this gross, mass, abusive maltreatment of 2+ million young unmarried mothers during the BSE/EMS!

Chris

SMAAC

Senior Mothers Adoption Activist Coalition

Answer 9

Sly, wouldn't it be easier to just use the term "BSE"?  I don't think that anyone has legally copyrighted yet and this means that everyone can use it.  As there is a Wikipedia article on it (which exists because of independent media references using the term BSE, i.e. evidence of it in the general lexicon) and a growing of public awareness of this term, why not use it as this would help people better understand what you are talking about?  I really really would like to encourage you to do this.  Who cares what others who are using this term think?  They can't do a thing about it if you decide to use it.  

Your supporter,

F.

Answer 10

People close to adoption recognize that there is a tiny but vocal movement of anti adoption extremists who regret relinquishing their birth children. But to most it is clear that sociological climate has more to do with adoption than some imagined evil conspiracy.

We also see what has happened in the 'keep your baby' era.

The most important change that we need w/r/t adoption is greater social acceptance and open celebration of women who choose adoption plans for their children. Discouraging adoption and relinquishment promotes poverty, violence and gender inequality.

P.S. It is critical that people who are here to learn about adoption understand that buying into extremist views and reviewing their material does NOT equal education. It is worthwhile but remember that you are reading an extremely skewed minority viewpoint.