More solo mothers adopt their own

Press, 16 November 1977, Page 6

More solo mothers adopt their own

The number of babies for adoption continues to decrease; but more solo mothers are adopting their own children. More mothers of ex-nup-tial babies were keeping their children, marrying later, and then adopting their children, said the senior social worker at the Social Welfare Department’s Christchurch office (Miss S. Greenwood.) They thought this gave the child a more acceptable status. Solo mothers who later married the father of the child were not included in this category, Miss Greenwood said. The child became legitimate through the marriage. The Social Welfare Department, which is responsible for 87 per cent of adoption orders made in New Zealand passed 2942 babies into the hands of adoptive parents in the year ended last March, more than 400 down on the number three years ago. Sixty one per cent then went to parents unrelated to the child; last year the figure was reduced to 53 per cent. In Christchurch the waiting list for babies stands at 150. Some on the list have been told they will never get a child. Some who are prepared to forego preferences could have one within months. A lot depends on

the stipulations made by the mother. Almost all the children adopted are ex-nuptial, but mothers are able to lay down religious and other conditions, such as place in the family. The department also seeks the “best possible parents for each child,” Miss Greenwood said. The Christchurch office is receiving and placing about three children a week, and inquiries from persons interested in adopting number three or four a day.

“These are fresh inquiries,” Miss Greenwood said. The process for finding parents was self-selective. Interested couples came to meetings at which the subject of adoption was covered. Few changed their minds after the course. The decline in the number of babies available for adoption was the result of changing community attitudes towards de facto marriages, ex-nuptial children and solo parenthood, the Director of Social Work (Mr J. K. B. Fountain) said. The availability of the domestic purposes benefit was another cause.

“It is difficult to know whether solo mothers are induced to keep their babies because of the ready availability of the benefit, or whether the administrators foresaw a trend and made

provision for it,” Miss Greenwood said. “I suspect that a mother, knowing she can get financial help, is more likely to keep her baby.” “I wish they would not keep their babies, I am not condemning the solo mother — some of them work hard and are very capable and their children are beautifully dressed —but there is more to parenthood than that. On balance, so much more could be done if a two-parent family was able to provide the support and security of an adoptive home.

“There are some tremendously good people prepared to adopt. So many of them have so much more to offer than a single girl on her own,” she said. There seemed to be no marked demand for either; girl or boy babies, and the! adoption of mixed blood I babies was staying stable, Miss Greenwood said. “We have no trouble placing any baby that is healthy and new-born. We have greater difficulty when they are a year or two old, or have some significant blemish.” In 1967 almost 42 per cent of all children born out of wedlock — the Department is required to investigate all such births — were placed for adoption. By 1976 the proportion had dropped to 14 per cent. :