The passion behind changes to handling of birth mothers in adoption cases
Under Kate Mcdougall’s supervision there is now a very sophisticated search and contact service here, says Gary Clapton
Kate Mcdougall retired from Birthlink in July. Nothing to write about? Well no. For twenty-five years Kate has been the driving force in Scotland for recognition of birth mothers’ experiences in adoption. Through numerous ups and downs of the organisation, changes of staff and of trustees, Kate has been a constant in the fast-changing world of adoption.
Often when we think of adoption we think of children. The fact is that in Scotland there have been over 90,000 adoptions and for every adopted child there is a birth mother. Those children and those mothers often have moved far from Scotland by the time that they come to look for one another.
Kate in her twenty-five years has linked many birth mothers and some birth fathers with their adult children across continents: Australia, Canada, Africa, USA.
Times change and terms with them, now most adoptions are of older children from care and these adoptions can often be against the wishes of birth parents and so they have been called ‘forced adoptions’. Previously, the majority of adoptions involved babies, the term used was ‘given up’ or ‘relinquished’.
However, such words often masked the reality of young women (and young men) who faced opprobrium and pressure from society and their families, and no support from social service systems that were designed to meet the needs of couples that wanted to adopt a child; moreover, there was little in the way of housing and financial support. The children of these adoptions grew up, became curious about their origins and began to seek answers, and increasingly sought to make contact with their birth mothers.
Birth mothers’ unresolved grief, sometimes hidden from everyone, sometimes emerging in later-life physical, emotional and mental health difficulties meant that they too sought information. No news of their children was a torment. Was he well? How has she turned out? They too returned for help to the agencies that had organised the adoption of their children.
Some Scottish adoption organisations responded (the local authorities were not so consistently helpful) and a body of knowledge but especially good practice developed. Kate and Birthlink were at the heart of this. Kate was (and is) a great believer in openness. Adoption is characterised by secrecy in terms of replaced birth records and locked away legal papers.
So from the 1990s under Kate’s leadership, Birthlink responded positively by providing complete access to its own adoption records, for both adopted people and birth parents. This was not simply an administrative development. Adoption records can be hurtful, or can be affirming or just puzzling. Or all three. Skills in sensitive interpretation of case notes, negotiation with other record holders and, when search and contact with family members was wanted, mediation, grew.
During this period Birthlink, Kate and others were to the fore in sharing these skills with law and policy makers, and most importantly, with practitioners the length and breadth of Scotland. We shared, and still do, our experiences of helping adopted adults and birth family members. Very often, training sessions with practitioners involved personal stories and included those that had used our services.
Kate was insistent about the power of experience. In a world where attention remains on the child, and birth mothers were often told to get on with their lives after the adoption, witnessing the experiences and frustrations of adopted adults and the pain of birth mothers was a powerful incentive for practitioners to understand that adoption was not a one-off event but a life-long process for all involved.
Kate brought her experience and passion to Parliament in 2006 when she forcibly made the case for consistency of service across the various Scottish adoption agency and recordholders and improved help for adults.
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 placed increased requirements on local authorities to provide adoption support services to a range of adults affected by adoption, including not only adoptive parents but also adopted adults, birth parents and extended birth families.
In fact, this was a recognition of the good practice of the non-statu-
tory agencies such as Birthlink that were already providing information, advice and counselling to adults that had been affected by adoptions. Nevertheless, such legislation and attendant policy developments are welcome in their endorsement of the beliefs of people like Kate and organisations such as Birthlink.
There is no more space to write
about how far we have come in developing a search service. And it is fair to say that with Birthlink, and under Kate’s supervision above all, there is now a highly sophisticated search, contact and mediation service in Scotland that is usually capable of finding and bringing together family members all over the globe.
After she has had a rest, we hope that Kate will bring her experience and knowledge to Birthlink’s band of unpaid, expert genealogists and searchers.
In the meantime, she will be much missed.
Dr Gary Clapton is a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and a supporter of Birthlink