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[karenwb]

http://tinyurl.com/ptsd-mothers 

"Adoption Induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Mothers of the Baby Scoop Era"

Please feel free to post comments at the bottom of the site page.

Hugs,
KarenWB
www.babyscoopera.com

[Hanne]

Hi Karen,

Excellent article.

I understand that the Baby Scoop Era lasted in the US until Roe vs. Wade in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade

The Baby Scoop Era in Canada occured until abortion was legalized in 1988 after the infamous case against Dr. Henry Morgentaler. I and many other mothers in Canada experienced exactly what you have described well into the late 1980's. I really hope that Canada and the world will will finally recognize that the BSE in Canada lasted over 15 years longer than in the US. How can we get this information out there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Morgentaler

I have been pondering over the statement contained in your article: "it will be repeated over and over that her child will be called a bastard, will be handicapped by illegitimacy and grow to hate her as the cause of this misery".

We were told this rhetoric at the time, and now unfortunately a lot of our children hate us because they were adopted . Our children believe that we had a “choice” in the adoption and they don't recognize that we were brainwashed. This is the lies that the adoption industry continues to feed them.  

How ironic is it that by choosing to parent our children they would hate us, and in fact they hate us because of adoption? How does one make sense of all of this abuse that happened to us at the hands of the people that were supposed be helping us?

Thank-you again for an excellent article.

All the best.

Hanne

[karenwb]

Thanks, Hanne! Yes, I've spoken to Bry and Valerie and they've told me that the BSE lasted much longer in Canada than here in the USA.

Thank you for your kind words about the article.

I agree with you about our kids and keeping vs. surrender. The social wreckers told us we would ruin our children if we kept... and they would hate us for putting them through the stigma of being the child of an "unwed" mother... "illegitimate" child... "bastard" child.

I still wanted to keep my baby. Call me selfish! I wanted my baby. I just didn't believe what they told me but I DID believe that I wouldn't be able to survive and she wouldn't either if I had kept her. I didn't have a job. I was locked away in a maternity "home." How clever of them, huh? Can't work when you are a prisoner!! Interesting how they called us "inmates." Very appropriate.

But many of our children hate us anyway and blame us for surrendering them so we couldn't win could we? At least in our own minds. And we were soooo young. How could we reason all of that out? We didn't have any life experiences to fall back on or to use to weigh things. They counted on that. Not knowing caused us tremendous fear and anxiety. It caused guilt and shame and fear and confusion, just to mention a few. No wonder we suffer from PTSD. And this isn't surprising either because Dr. Llorente who spoke at our 2006 adoption conference in NYC explained how our young brains were forming at that age. We were very easy targets as a result!! Much of our problem was chemical. Chemicals from child birth and chemicals from the developing mind... changing and growing. So many things working against us!!

[Cedar]

Thanks, Hanne! Yes, I've spoken to Bry and Valerie and they've told me that the BSE lasted much longer in Canada than here in the USA.

Yes, fantastic article, Karen!!! 


I would like to find a different term for that period of forced adoptions, in Canada.  For several reasons.  The first being that the dates are different, so if one tries to apply the term 'baby scoop era" for Canada, people assume it ended here in 1972.   

Second, BSE stands for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or "Mad Cow Disease," which has been a big issue out in the West here.

 Third, from what i can tell, the methods used in Canada were different from the U.S. for the most part. More outright abductions right at birth by hospitals, violating the Criminal Code.
Few mothers were allowed ANY contact with their infants. Possibly more use of heavy-duty psychoactive and narcotic pharmaceuticals in order to induce amnesia and keep a woman powerfully and deliberately drugged out of her skull so she could not fight back.  The constant threat that if you did not sign, (1) your baby would be held in foster care until you did sign or (2) they would terminate your rights anyway after a few weeks on grounds of "abandonment."

The term "era" also implies a distinct and conclusive start and end date, and I don't think we can conclude that this time period had anything other than a gradual rise and a gradual decrease.

So, I would like to suggest something like "The Forced Adoption Period" as an alternative for Canada.  It states that there was a period of time, the fact that mothers were forced to surrender, and the reason *why* our beloved babies were ripped away from us whisked out of the delivery rooms against our will, the intention of the abductors being for us never to be able to see our children again.

[karenwb]

Besides the Baby Scoop Era I've also heard the term The Baby Sweep. I don't think it is as catchy. I didn't coin the BSE. Can't remember who did. I think your idea is a very good one for what occurred in Canada, Bry.

Hugs,
KarenWB
www.babyscoopera.com

[Hanne]

Yes I agree with you Bry we need to come up with a different title for this time period.