Baby business running out of babies

Press, 4 August 1976, Page 21

Baby business running out of babies

By

CLAY HASWELL

Adopting a child is not as easy as it used to be. To those who still harbour myths of orphanages and unwanted children, this may come as a surprise: simply, there are not enough children to go around.

The adoption section of the Department of Social Welfare in Christchurch has a waiting list of 150 approved parents, and 92 other couples have applications pending. Many will wait years for the chance to adopt a child; some may never get the chance at all. In 1975, only 192 babies were offered for adoption — or something like just over three babies a week. Applications from prospective parents average about seven a week. “I can remember when it was difficult to find homes,” says the adoption section’s senior social worker, Miss S. Greenwood. “From 1963 to 1968, we sometimes had to board babies until we could find adoptive parents. Applicants got babies quickly.” Miss Greenwood cites two main factors for the change. “For one thing, information on birth control and abortion is more readily available, so I think there may be fewer unwanted babies. “Another factor might be a changing social climate. There is less stigma attached to being an unmarried mu..i, so perhaps more girls are opting to keep their babies.” The demand for infants is such that Miss Greenwood admits: “We are

never going to satisfy all the people on the waiting list. We will never have that many babies.” Furthermore, older children are infrequently available. “These are ge: rally quite happy adoptions, but they are very rare.”

The shortage of unwanted babies is perhaps a healthy situation, but is often a disappointment to parents who, for one reason or another, are anxious to adopt. “Our first responsibility is to the children,” says Miss Greenwood, “but we do feel sympathy for people on the waiting list.”

The present guidelines for adoption were established in the Adoption Act of 1955. Though various religious groups, and even individuals can arrange adoptions, the applicants must be approved by the Ministry for adoptions to become legal. The procedure usually begins with a telephone call to set up an office interview. At the interview, prospective parents are given information about adoption, and the legal aspects of adoption are explained. Parents are asked about what they feel they can offer a child, and why they wish to adopt. They are then given formal applications which require information on age, occupation, income, religion, length of marriage, previous marriages, other children, and police and

psychiatric records. Three recommendations from outside the family are also required.

“The Act requires that at least one of the applicants be over 25,” says Miss Carmen Searle, an adoption social worker in Christchurch. “We prefer that they have been married for two years and have their own home, although emphasis on the latter is decreasing because we are aware that it is harder to get mortgage finance than it used to be.”

Perhaps the most important criterion of all are

subjective, Miss Searle insists. “What we are looking for is warm, thoughtful people that are secure in their marriage and have something to offer the child, not only now but in the future.”

Miss Searle says that couples with three children already are unlikely to be given a fourth: “There just are not enough babies to go around. It used to be considered a good thing to adopt a child; now it is more of a privilege.” Financial solvency is “about the simplest” qualification for the applicants. “Very rarely do we disqualify applicants for financial reasons alone,” says Miss Searle. The adoption section has a responsibility to the natural mother as well as to the baby and adoptive parents, Miss Greenwood says. “This is a very emotive business. It is a sad thing for a mother giving up her baby.” The earliest a baby is offered for adoption is 10 days after birth. The mother is interviewed initially two or three months before birth, and again two days after birth. When she is discharged, the baby stays on at the hospital, although social workers sometimes continue to see the mother for weeks afterwards. A solicitor must vouch that the decision to give up the child was made in her own free will before adoption can take place. Meanwhile, the adoption section checks their file to find suitable parents for the child. An attempt is made to match the physical and intellectual traits of the adoptive parents with those of the natural parents. Mixed racial adoptions are sometimes considered. “Mixed racial adoptions require extra cars,” Miss

Greenwood says. “They can be more emotional than other adoptions.” The parents selected are then contacted by telephone and asked if they are still interested, and notified that a baby is available. They are then allowed to visit the baby at the hospital. “We try to leave the door open for the parents to back out,” Miss Greenwood says. “It is a gut thing — either you have it or you do not.”

If the child is acceptable to the parents — and sometimes, but infrequently, it is not — the new parents contact their doctor and solicitor, and three to four days later are allowed to take the child home. Social work-

ers visit the home every few months to see how the child is getting on. If all goes well, a magistrate can grant an adoption order at seven months, and the child becomes legally a member of the family.

Both the natural and adoptive parents are given general information about each other. Parents are urged to explain to the child that he or she is adopted as soon as the child seems ready or curious.

In Scotland, adopted children are eligible to receive full information about their natural parents at the age of 18, though in New Zealand such information is completely confidential. England is considering similar legislation, and groups in Australia and New Zealand have begun asking for change.

“I am against revealing this information at the moment, but I might be open to change,” says Miss Greenwood. She reasons that parents have been promised confidentiality in the past, and it would be unfair to break this pledge. “If a bill that was not retroactive was introduced, I might be for it,” she says. “But it is important that parents know in advance that this information might be revealed.” The adoption section is not without its critics. One unsuccessful applicant contacted by “The Press” charged social workers with religious discrimination. “We met all the criterion, but I feel we were rejected because we listed our religious affiliation as atheists,” he says. Miss Greenwood disagrees. “There must have been some other reason why he was rejected,” she says. “Under the act. we

are not allowed to discriminate on religious grounds. However, a mother can stipulate that her child be brought up in a particular faith, and we try to comply with this.” Another unsuccessful applicant who otherwise met the qualifications felt he had been rejected because he was an immigrant, though his wife was a New Zealander. While admitting that social workers are subjective, Miss Greenwood says the charge is “absolutely untrue.” “We have offered children to Dutchmen, Ameri-

cans, and many other nationalities. Immigrants are treated no differently from other applicants," she adds. One couple that was successful, and was eventually offered a child, criticised the overbearing tone of the social worker that had interviewed them in Auckland. “We already had two children, and here was this unmarried woman telling us about the responsibility of rearing a child,” sniffed the mother. Miss Greenwood says that the accusation is not

new, and that on one occasion a solicitor had levelled a similar jibe at her in court. The criticism is unfair, she says. “We have a job that we are trained to do. •‘Adoption is a very different thing from bringing up one’s own child. Anybody can bathe and feed a baby. What we are concerned with is how a couple will cope with the special emotional problems of an adopted child. In the long run, we are not in business to make friends. We are trying to find the best possible homes for babies."