Forced Adoption — Who Cares?
Removed from my mother’s side and left with foster parents until I was adopted at six months old
I am writing to tell you before you go ahead with any adoption plans. I am sorry my daughter is not to be adopted. It’s one month now, and I can’t do without her.
Excerpt from a letter my birth mother sent to the authorities.
The above quote is a snippet from a letter my birth mother (aged 18) wrote in 1968 in a futile attempt to stop her baby — me — from forcibly being taken from her. Yet, despite the adamant tone in those words, I was removed from her care after spending a month by her side, and left with foster parents until I was adopted when I was six months old.
Subsequent correspondence shows how nuns from the Catholic order of the Sisters of Nazareth,¹ repeatedly claimed she would not make a capable mother and I would be better cared for elsewhere.
I have read many horrific cases about mothers who were at Nazareth house in Southampton, as my own birth mum had been. One young woman wrote about how she was informed her baby would be put up for adoption, there was no choice but to flee. After being threatened at the unit, she literally went on the run. Thankfully, kind people in the area took her in and offered assistance, and…
