"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
