Recent content by Kim Pugh

I’m referring to my own mother who contacted Social Services to request that they adopt my baby because I refused to have an abortion.

Whilst I was in The Grange, and throughout my life, I have never met or known a mother who wanted to give up her child voluntarily. I have however, met and known some women whose children may have been better off if they had! Mine included.

Adoption inquiry The Joint Committee on Human Rights has launched a new inquiry to look at the experiences of unmarried women whose children were adopted between 1949 and 1976. Adults who have experience of adoption during this period can respond to a survey. There’s also a call for written...

Whilst I was in The Grange, and throughout my life, I have never met or known a mother who wanted to give up her child voluntarily. I have however, met and known some women whose children may have been better off if they had! Mine included.

If a girl was under 18 her parents could adopt the baby even if she wanted to keep her child. I speak from experience. Social services view was that a single mother has got nothing to offer a child and there were many couples who wanted to adopt who could offer a child a better life.

It was a beautiful house but filled with sadness. I can’t remember any happiness there. The nuns were uncaring and didn’t engage in conversation with the mothers. There was a young girl who lived in the Grange, she didn’t have a child. I always thought this to be odd. The girl was not allowed...

I was in ‘The Grange’ mother and baby home in 1981, with my daughter. The home was owned by Cadbury’s and run by nuns. The nun in charge was Miss Green. It wasn’t a nice place to live and I found the nuns to be unpleasant and uncaring. The nuns went off duty around 6.00pm and ‘care...