Babies Taken From Their Mothers In The 50S.

[hellywelly4]

Apparently the government are being asked to apologise for taking babies away from their unwed mothers in the 1950s. As I remember it, it was more a family thing and the girls’ parents wouldn’t let them keep the babies - nothing at all to do with the government. It was such a disgrace for the family. It was an awful time. Is my memory correct?

[Sqad]

gness.

I respect your opinion but don't agree with you.

[gness]

That's fine, Sqad. I understand that you can occasionally be wrong......... ;-)

[Sqad]

LOL ^^

[lady-janine]

Lots of people don't want to talk about their experiences. Not mothers or children. Doesn't make it any better.

[10ClarionSt]

A, now deceased, member of my family gave birth to a baby boy in 1942. The father of the boy asked her to marry him. Pleaded with her, but she refused. And with that, her parents said she had to have the boy adopted, which he was. Wartime, single mother, unwilling to marry the father. The boy has never been heard of from that day to this. Not that I'm aware of. I always think about this when Long Lost Family is on. But the govt had nothing to do with it. It was the circumstances of the time more than anything else.

[The Builder]

This was covered in a superb film a few years ago called "Oranges and Sunshine." Starring Emily Watson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Sunshine

Well worth seeing if you come across it.

[andres]

I only remember a handful of unmarried girls in our area having babies in the 40/50s and none were 'taken ' off them. Either there would be a shot-gun wedding or the grandparents would bring them up. Sometimes the girls back then would either visit the local woman who did abortions or drink a bottle of gin . I don't think it had anything to do with the government.



S

[bhg481]

The people who need to apologise are the parents of the unmarried mothers. They were the ones who made the girls give up their babies to avoid shame in the family. Nothing whatsoever to do with the government and if the likes of midwives were unkind/cruel to the girls that was their personal unkindness, not a policy.

[pastafreak]

// if the likes of midwives were unkind/cruel to the girls that was their personal unkindness, not a policy.//
But if their employers (the nhs?)allowed such attitudes, then they certainly are to blame. It's not part of their job to be judgemental, compassion is or should be.

[tiggerblue10]

Very sad and horrible times for unmarried mothers but yes, it was a circumstance of the times back then. The babies wouldn't have known any better but then growing up and finding out you were snatched from you birth mother must be awful. Long Lost Family has shown many of these cases. Very sad.

[10ClarionSt]

The Builder @ 17.20.

Re Oranges & Sunshine. I don't think this is what the OP is refering to. The OP talks about babies being taken from unwed mothers. Oranges & Sunshine was a scandal that persisted for over 70 years and resulted in Gordon Brown issuing an apology from the British Govt for this scandal in 2010. The Independent Inquiry Into Child Abuse started with this particular topic as the first item to be investigated, at which Margaret Humphries, from The Child Migrants' Trust, gave evidence. I have mentioned this on AB previously, here:

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1595872.html

[burlyshirley]

When watching Long Lost Family I very often feel anger towards the parents of the young girls who were forced to give up their much loved babies in the 50's, 60's and sometimes 70's. I can't understand how they could treat their own flesh and blood in such a cruel way and make them give up their first Grandchild. My own beloved parents were only 19 and 22 when Mum got pregnant with me in 1949, but they were lucky, they had decent parents who loved and cared about them. They married several months before I was born and had 66 years of a good marriage. I don't think the Government should have to apologise, it's the long dead parents who should, but of course, they can't.

[Sqad]

In the era that this thread is commenting upon, it was a disgrace, a social stigma, a blot on one's copybook to become pregnant out of wedlock.

That was it.

It was often the girls themselves that wanted either abortion ( which was illegal) or adoption which in many cases , but not all, was heartbreaking.
They were the cards that you were dealt and one had to play them at one's best.

Nobody should apologise, Government or parents.

[barry1010]

This was a time when society mattered - when a woman could be branded a slattern for not donkey stoning the step or getting the washing on the line early Monday morning; a trollop for being over friendly with the milkman.
Being shunned in a close community could be very hard to cope with. Society put the burden of shame on a family and the good opinion of one's neighbours really mattered to a lot of people, especially as most lived their lives in a relatively small area and depended on their neighbours far more than we tend to today.
Even now a woman can get called those terms we all know if she is perceived to have a few too many sexual partners. Strange how there are many more insulting words for a woman who enjoys sex with multiple people than a man who does the same.

I don't believe the government was responsible.

[Old_Geezer]

One apologises if one has done something wrong, not if someone else has done something wrong, and especially not if one suspects the apology from the wrong place may be used as proof compensation should follow.

It's all very sad but the desire for an apology seems, at present, to be directed towards the wrong place. Until there's is evidence that the government was the one that demanded the children were taken, then this is not a government issue, not even a past government issue. It seems more about society's social norms at the time.