For years, we’ve heard of the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) suffered by veterans of war, as well as children trapped in violent families and witnesses to horrific events.
Did you know that mothers who were forced or coerced into giving up their babies also suffer from PTSD?
I can relate to much of this: (excerpted from the article linked below, not necessarily in chronological order — a mere taste of the whole content)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined… as being a disorder linked to having experienced a traumatic event, and characterized by symptoms such as hyper vigilance, flashbacks, emotional numbness, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, difficulty sleeping, concentrating, persistent anxiety, etc.
Many mothers who experienced the loss of a child to adoption have gone on to describe these symptoms.
Between 1945 and 1973, a period often referred to in adoption literature as the "Baby Scoop Era" (BSE), many hundreds of thousands of unmarried mothers in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom were separated from their infants against their will. They were targeted by a system whose purpose was to obtain healthy newborn infants for adoption.
In 1964, the midst of the BSE, concern was voiced as to the tactics used to separate mothers from their infants in order to provide newborns for a growing adoption market, which by then was being driven by demand.
The theory and goal of the BSE was curative, as if these girls had a disease, as if they were mentally unfit, or as identified in historical literature, "deviant."
"The Caucasian single mother was expected to pay for violating norms against premarital sex and conception. Her pregnancy, according to experts, was a neurotic symptom. Experts also agreed that only the most seriously disturbed mothers kept their babies rather than giving them up to middle-class Caucasian couples for adoption.”
Exiled mothers began their journey as pregnant, unmarried women in America. They were usually between sixteen and eighteen years of age. During the BSE, contraception was difficult for single women to access; and young women's natural fertility predictably took its course Learning of their pregnancy, they ignored their changing bodies as long as possible although eventually they were unable to hide their socially unsanctioned sexuality. They were mothers without wedding rings but in all other aspects, no different than any other woman in their era. During this period women were "forging new standards of sexual behavior" and this became known as "the girl problem.”
The 'problem girl' tells the child's father she is pregnant. He leaves town, goes off to college, marries another woman or joins the armed services and is dispatched to Vietnam to avoid having to marry her. He totally rejects her. She seeks help from her parents. When the parents have recovered from the news of this unwelcome, unwed pregnancy they seek counsel from "experts" on what can be done with their daughter. Doctors and pastors advise the parents to commit their daughter to a maternity home and put the baby up for adoption.
What effect did the environment of a maternity home have on the pregnant girl? Could brainwashing, more commonly known today as thought reform, have played a part in the surrender of her baby to adoption? There is more than adequate proof that it did. Brainwashing, or thought reform, was an accepted and applied method of separating women from their babies so those babies could be adopted.
An estimated million and one half unmarried mothers in the United States lost children to pressured adoptions during the BSE. By the evidence provided by social work and historical literature and by testimony of the mothers themselves, it is clear that they were treated somewhere between patient and criminal. The sentence imposed upon these mothers has caused them to suffer a lifetime of loss, grief and ill health induced by the actions of the adoption industry and its "professional" workforce.
I hope you’ll take the time to read this article and contemplate the treatment of mothers, the horror of mother/child separation, and if adoption is truly a worthwhile practice in our society.
Adoption Induced PTSD
13 comments:
Strictly speaking in Australia we didn't have a baby Scoop Era we call it forced adoption.The current Inquiry into forced adoption will report next month and the results should be very interesting, particularly as there was a fairly large and unexpected response from adult adoptees who have their very own form of PTSD.
Von, please alert me when that happens. Either here or via FB or email me at droessle at mac dot com.
I find it interesting that girls from less than a decade - 1974 to about 1985 - were treated no different, but are not accorded the same assistance or acceptance when it comes to our PTSD. After all we had a choice right? Just saying.
Very true, Lori. And still pretty much true. Although this article focus on the BSE, it is a testament to the impacts of child loss on ALL mothers. I think it acknowledges all of us, not a particular era. As for assistance, I don't know of anyone who's getting that for the crimes of adoption.
Denise, you should look into the number of former foster girls that got pregnant and were either forced into an abortion or an adoption - almost without exception as far as I know - from 1970 to 1999. I think you would be horrified.
This sure is an interesting post. It wasn't until recently that I realized that I suffered from PTSD following the loss of my child. I wasn't aware of it as I didn't know there was a name to describe the feelings I had. In preparing a unit of study for my high school students, I came across some information about victims of trauma having a specific kind of awakening experience. Their sleep is interrupted by terrors akin to the night terrors of children and occur in the NREM phase of sleep as opposed to the REM sleep when normal dreaming takes place. When I read this, I went ,"Oh my gosh" because for years I remember being awakened by adoption-related terrors. I wonder how many other first mothers have had similar experiences?
Gail, I'm thinking the majority. Although they may not have known what to call it, think they are alone and "crazy." I know I thought I was.
Adoptees too of course experience night terors, nightmares and adoption related dreams. I have suffered as long as I can remember - 67 years so far!
Indeed, Von. The impacts on all of us speak to the horrors of adoption. Now, if we can just get the public, the agencies, and the government to understand.
We've made a good start with our Inquiry.The Senators were respectful, listened intently and asked some smart questions.
Von, again keep me posted on that.
You in Australia are getting more respect and response than bmother and adoptees are receiving in the U.S. I suspect it's because (as I read recently) is that America is the most adopting nation anywhere. Not just domestic babies, but as you no doubt know, vying for foreign children.
Adoption in the USA is a free market industry. Babies are the product.
I worked against a pre-birth surrender bill in my state several years ago. The adoption agencies convinced lawmakers to pass the bill because they were "losing business to Utah!"
Businessess do not care about mothers or babies or the people we become later on...we are all just a means to an end....in a business deal.
It would take a major overhaul in attitude in the US to change the adoption philosophy from predatory business to family preservation/support.
People's family members just shouldn't available on the free market. Period.
Here, here, Kitta. Babies for sale is no different than slavery. As in, I own you. But until the public gets it, government gets it, adoption and the industry that supports it, will go on. It's a hard nut to crack.
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