Fact Sheet #25

	Homepage
	The Beginning
	The Team
	International Researchers
	Independent Groups
	William Bache & Co Solicitors
	Our Services
	Fact Sheets and Research Papers
	Survey 1000
	Media Room
	Questions Answered
	Links and Book List
	Contact Us

Fact Sheet #25: THE LABEL

In Britain’s recent past any baby, child, young person or adult who was considered outside the ‘norm’ suffered appalling prejudice.
Ridiculed and victimised they were labelled in what is now recognised as derogatory terms, many were locked away, often for life.

Mentally handicapped children were labelled ‘Retards.’
Physically disabled children and adults were labelled ‘Spastics.’
Unmarried pregnant girls held in Magdalene Convents were labelled ‘Maggies.’
Unmarried pregnant girls committed to Asylums were labelled ‘Morally Deficient.’

Until the 1950’s every pregnant young woman, whether she was married or widowed, became a mother when the baby she had carried for 42 weeks was born.
Unmarried mothers were titled ‘natural mothers.’ Acknowledging the fact that although they were unmarried they were mothers.
If baby died at birth or later she remained her baby’s mother, she retained the title ‘mother’ or ‘natural mother’ it would have been unthinkable to label her ‘former mother’ or ‘former natural mother.’

In the 1950’s Social Workers and Moral Welfare Workers decided unmarried mothers could no longer be titled ‘natural mothers’ as this implied the adoptive mother was ‘unnatural’ a substitute, a surrogate who was not the baby’s real mother.

Dispensing with the title ‘natural mother’ they identified her as a Breeder by using the derogatory label ‘Birth Mother.’

This enabled Social Workers and Moral Welfare Workers to degrade and exploit natural mothers, deny them respect, treat them with contempt, and write them off as insignificant and dispensable.

It allowed adoptive parents to ignore the natural mothers existence, dismiss her as irrelevant once they had possession of her baby, and later discourage and/or oppose any contact with her.

The label ‘Birth Mother’ is still used today.

Natural mothers unaware of its origins and implications apply it to themselves.
Groups advertise themselves as; ‘Birth Mothers’ ‘Birth Parents’ Support Groups.
Social Workers continue to categorize and degrade natural mothers with this label.

This continues despite the fact that the United Nations refer to the unmarried mothers as ‘First Mothers’ or ‘Natural Mothers’ but never by the derogatory term ‘Birth Mothers.’