Smashed by Adoption: The Effects of the Baby Scoop Era on Mothers and Adoptees By Shelby Cunningham

Short Timeline of a Complex Issue 1947 – Maternity homes stop teaching parenting, become adoption mills s – young women lose children to adoption by the thousands due to stigma of out-of-wedlock pregnancy 1960s -1980s – states seal original birth certificates of adoptees 1990s-today – mothers and adoptees make their stories and issues public

Adoption: The Only Option Schools, families, communities shunned pregnant teens, single moms Huge demand for adoptable infants Maternity homes offered no choice – adoption only Unresolved grief and shame from losing one’s child

First mother Yvonne, The Girls Who Went Away: "You hear about people's lives being touched by adoption. It's no damn touch. I mean, that just drives me nuts. You're smashed by adoption. I mean, it alters the mothers‘ lives forever."

Modern Activism: Mothers Web resources for mothers who lost children to adoption and for single mothers who want to raise their children Collection of BSE documents from social workers demonstrating the attitudes that led to swell in adoptions

Modern Activism: Adoptees Campaigns for the rights of adoptees to access their original birth certificates