Forced Adoption in Scotland

I didn’t know until saw the BBC News today that there there was an NHS policy of forced adoption of babies of unmarried mothers in Scotland from the 1950s through to the 1970s. The Scottish Government has just belatedly apologised to those whose lives were scarred. The policy was draconian.  A woman described how she was given no pain relief in hospital even for stitches and that her baby was removed before she even saw it, leaving her alone in a cold room. Apparently the practice was designed to make the women suffer.

I was born in Glasgow in 1954 to an unmarried mother. I know that there was some family pressure to have me adopted, but my mum never mentioned this policy. Perhaps she got away with it because whe was older (39), or maybe she pretented to have been married, her husband having unfortunately died in the tropics. (The story she told later.) I don’t blame her for fibbing. She was very determined to have her child and I’m so glad. I was shocked  to hear that the forced apoption policy continued into the 1970s.

I knew you were brave, Mum, but perhaps you were braver than I ever realised.  You later succumbed to terrible manic depression and talked of feeling guilty and of not wanting to live. You had nothing to feel guilty for and everything to live for. You gave me a wonderful childhood. You did nothing wrong. Thanks, Mum xxx
 
My mother is on the far left in the patterned dress. I’m the baby with the big head.