"By the early 1940's, social workers became convinced
that adoption was preferable to"keeping mother and child
together" . . . Rejecting the idea that all women who had
borne children were suitable mothers, social workers maintained
that they must individualize each case . . . and decide which
women should or should not put their infants up for adoption."
AND SIN NO MORE: SOCIAL POLICY AND UNWED MOTHERS IN CLEVELAND
1855 TO 1990, Marian J. Morton, Historian, 1993
"The caseworker must then be decisive, firm, and unswerving
in her pursuit of a healthy solution for the girl's problem.
The 'I'm going to help you by standing by while you work it
through' approach will not do. What is expected from the worker
is precisely what the child expected but did not get from her
parents - a decisive 'No!' It is essential that the parent most
involved, psychologically, in the daughter's pregnancy also
be dealt with in a manner identical with the one suggested in
dealing with the girl. Time is of the essence; the maturation
of the fetus proceeds at an inexorable pace. An ambivalent mother,
interfering with her daughter's ability to arrive at the decision
to surrender her child, must be dealt with as though she (the
girl's mother) were a child herself." Out-Of-Wedlock
Pregnancy In Adolescence, p. 71, 1960, Marcel Heiman, MD.
"The first thing the unmarried mother is likely to lose
is her right to make important decisions. The agency or community
tells her what she must do if she is to receive the services
she needs . . . In most instances the plan for the baby is pre-determined.
Often these matters are decided without her being able to state
her own preferences." HELPING UNMARRIED MOTHERS, by
Rose Bernstein, copyright 1971
". . . unwed mothers may have placed their children for
adoption for any of the following reasons . . . (2) they were
advised or pressured to release the baby . . ." COUNSELING
THE UNWED MOTHER, by Helen E. Terkelsen, copyright 1964
"When a worker can see that, had the unmarried mother
wanted a baby for normal reasons, she would have fallen in love,
married, and had a child under normal circumstances, the worker's
problem begins to resolve itself..." OUT OF WEDLOCK,
Leontine Young
The fact that social work professional attitudes tend to favor
the relinquishment of the baby, as the literature shows, should
be faced more clearly. Perhaps if it were recognized, workers
would be in less conflict and would therefore feel less guilty
about their "failures" (the kept cases)."
- Social worker Barbara Hansen Costigan, in her dissertation,
"The Unmarried Mother--Her Decision Regarding Adoption"
(1964)
".... if an unmarried child gives birth to a baby, those
circumstances alone ought to justify apprehension of the baby
before the baby leaves the hospital unless the unmarried child
mother can show that she has a viable plan for looking after
and rearing her baby." - "Board Review" for
the Child Welfare System (Canada, 1983)
[NOTE: no mention is made of ensuring
that the mother has access to social assistance (welfare)]
"An agency has a responsibility of pointing out to the
unmarried mother the extreme difficulty, if not the impossibility,
if she remains unmarried, of raising her child successfully
in our culture without damage to the child and to herself ....
The concept that the unmarried mother and her child constitute
a family is to me unsupportable. There is no family in any real
sense of the word." Joseph H. Reid, Principles, Values,
and Assumptions Underlying Adoption Practice, 1956 NAT'L CON.
SOC. WORK.
With all the endless advice we received from social workers,
very few of us were ever advised that we had the right to independent
legal counsel:
" An unwed mother who releases her child for adoption
needs legal counsel, as to her rights and the termination of
same. Only an attorney is qualified to spell out and interpret
these rights to her..... Unfortunately, most mothers
of children born out of wedlock .... are frequently in fear
or shame, misguided legally by persons not qualified to interpret
these rights." Counseling the Unwed Mother, by Helen
E. Terkelsen, copyright 1964
" The mother of the child born out of wedlock is frequently
young, frightened and very much alone when she is forced to
make the momentous decisions about her future and that of her
child. The provision of proper medical care, casework service,
a plan for her child, full and honest disclosure as to her legal
rights and the consequences of surrendering her child for adoption
are essential if the substance rather than the mere form of
her legal rights is to be secured. It is when this is
not done, when she is not helped to work through to the right
decision, that decisions made under duress may and often do
lead to unresolved conflicts that may shadow her life. . ."
Adoption and Law, by Hon. Justine Wise Polier, Judge,
Domestic Relations Court, New York City. 1956
