Origins SA
What we are about….
We are about educating the community about past illegal adoption practices in Australia. This page will be dedicated to adoption practices in South Australia. There have been approximately 26,000 adoptions in South Australia, with large numbers of babies taken from as early as the late 1930's and early 40's. The majority of these adoptions were the newborn babies of unwed and unsupported mothers.
In South Australia it was the usual practice for the hospital to separate the baby from the mother at birth if it was thought the baby was to be adopted. Was it also the "usual practice" to forbid the married mother eye contact with her child and fill the mother full of stupefying and carcinogenic drugs, all without asking her first would she like to have this kind of medical treatment? I think not.
In my case the delivering doctor and nurse must have thought my baby was to be adopted. Of course they forgot to ask me, his mother, first. This type of treatment constituted discriminatory hospital practice. Was this illegal. You betcha!
The baby was then locked away in a nursery and the mother did not usually get to see her child. Some mothers were lucky to see their baby but only after they had signed the adoption consent papers.
What they forgot in their rush to take our babies was the fact that the single mother had the same rights as a married woman. She was to be treated the same way as a married woman, because the Adoption of Children Act never came into play until the mother had signed the consent. The adoption consent was not allowed to be signed until at least five days after the birth. In other words it was illegal to forbid a mother access to her child.
You mean to say we had Rights?
What the Department of Human Services, hospitals, social workers and every one else neglected to tell the mother was that she had the same rights as any other mother, married or otherwise.
The mothers rights by law, were to be treated the same as any other mother when she went to the hospital to deliver her child, in other words she could see her child, she could hold her child and she could name her child, the same as any other mother.
The mother was the legal guardian of her child until she signed the consent to her child's adoption and up until the adoption order was made.
She was to be informed by the Social Worker of her entitlements such as financial assistance, alternatives to adoption, such as foster care and she was to be informed of future dire regret if she surrendered her child for adoption .
Only after she had been given all these options was an adoption to proceed.
A Parliamentary Inquiry into Adoption Practices in New South Wales has been running over the past 2 years and is expected to report in August 2000. The outcomes of this inquiry will finally reveal the truth about adoption practices in Australia. This affects all of us who have lost children, because there were no borders or boundaries to the systematic adoption practices that occurred in this country.
This inquiry is the most historical event in world history in relation to adoption and the eyes of the world are watching us. If you have been affected by adoption, we would welcome contact on the following email address.
Services
We welcome new members and we hold monthly support meetings.
We also offer an informative newsletter and welcome any donations to assist us in our cause.
