Smashed by Adoption:The Effects of the Baby Scoop Era on Mothers and Adoptees

By Shelby Cunningham

Short Timeline of a Complex Issue

• 1947 – Maternity homes stop teaching parenting, become adoption mills

• 1945-1970s – young women lose children to adoption by the thousands due to stigma of out-of-wedlock pregnancy

• 1960s -1980s – states seal original birth certificates of adoptees

• 1990s-today – mothers and adoptees make their stories and issues public

Adoption: The Only Option• Schools, families,

communities shunned pregnant teens, single moms

• Huge demand for adoptable infants

• Maternity homes offered no choice – adoption only

• Unresolved grief and shame from losing one’s child

First mother Yvonne, The Girls Who Went Away:

"You hear about people's lives being touched by adoption. It's no damntouch. I mean, that justdrives me nuts. You'resmashed by adoption.I mean, it alters themothers‘ lives forever."

Modern Activism: Mothers

• Web resources for mothers who lost children to adoption and for single mothers who want to raise their children

• Collection of BSE documents from social workers demonstrating the attitudes that led to swell in adoptions

Modern Activism: Adoptees

Campaigns for the rights of adoptees to access their original birth certificates