Forgotten people - the natural parents of adopted children

Abstract

The initial purpose of this thesis had been to study the problems encountered by unmarried mothers after they have relinquished a child for adoption. A sample of fifty-two names was drawn from a register which covered the period, May 1971 until May 1973, which was held at the Christchurch office of the Child welfare Division of the Department of Education (now the Department of Social Welfare) and the particulars of the natural mothers' age, education, occupation and reason for relinquishing the child recorded on an interviewing schedule. Then attempts were made to contact as many of these women as possible - many women had come to Christchurch specifically to have their babies and had then departed for points as far apart as Auckland and Australia. The initial approach was through the parents of the women and by this means, information on the current marital situation, occupation and whereabouts of twenty-four women was obtained. Although an invitation was extended to the women to contact me if they wished to discuss the matter further, only one woman did so. The request appears to have been 'filtered' by the parents, who, although prepared to co-operate to the extent of providing up-to-date information, managed to indicate there was little to be gained as they had already given the information required. In a second attempt to obtain face-to-face interviews, advertisements were placed in the Wellington papers and resulted in ten more interviews. Literature as a last source of information was also a failure so it was decided to make greater use of the data which were available. This thesis then became a descriptive study of the circumstances surrounding the giving up of a child for adoption, the characteristics of both parents, factors influencing the decision to give up the child and the immediate and longer-term effects of the decision as described by the woman and her mother approximately five to seven years later. Interview results were combined with the (very scanty) literature on this topic in outlining proposals for an improved service for all those involved in the situation of adoption - in particular all unmarried parents, their families, the adoptive families and the adoptees themselves. The results which have particular implication for planning services are those which show that the majority of unmarried mothers who gave their children for adoption were teenagers; that within a few years most of them marry and have another child within a short time and that many of the relationships were terminated because of the pregnancy. The findings of overseas research which indicates that the implementation of programmes which provide educational and counselling assistance enable the unmarried parents to "grow" and others, which provide assistance at any stage for any person who has been involved in an adoption (natural parents, the adoptee or the adoptive family) have also been included. Because of the number of teenage parents involved, plus the possibility that the trend for unmarried mothers to keep their children may change, I have suggested that the Department of Social Welfare set up a more comprehensive adoption service. This would be based at a centre where specialist staff (social workers, psychologists and medical personnel) would provide a programme which would include education on all aspects of pregnancy, opportunity to continue school studies, counselling and group sessions for not only the unmarried mothers, but also for their sexual partners, and their parents. In addition, services would be available to all persons involved in an adoption at any stage of their lives. Another function of the staff would be to work with parents and schools in programmes with the emphasis on human relationships. Consideration was also given to the possibility that the law here in New Zealand could be changed regarding the confidentiality of adoption information. At present, working within the framework of the law, the organisation "Jigsaw" manages to link up some enquirers, but as a voluntary orgnisation, this role would probably need to be taken over by the statutory agency, perhaps in conjunction with the original organisation and other voluntary groups. The professional staff at the Centre would be available to work with clients and with the voluntary organisations which would be involved in counselling. They could also work with schools, parents' groups and other organisations to educate the community. The final section of tbe thesis outlines areas for further study - longitudinal studies of women who have given up children for adoption; research into the numbers of ex-nuptial children born to women who have given up children and the time lapse between pregnancies and the whereabouts of subsequent children; of the investigation into unmarried mothers' knowledge of contraception; research programmes to assist unmarried fathers and the study of the long-term effects of mother-child contact in hospital.