Questions about BSE records?

Question

I requested my records from the adoption agency, and they arrived today. I have a couple questions.

First, my grandparents were billed almost $400 for room and board, doctor and hospital bill. Was this normal? Do any of you BSE moms know if your parents were billed by the adoption agency who ended up with your baby? I'm sort of shocked.

Second, apparently, my adoption was finalized in the county of my birth instead of the county of my aparents' residence. I already knew this. I didn't know the reason. It was because my amom was worried about the lawyer having an "idol tongue". She didn't want him to have my identifying information. Is my adoption even legal?

Answer 1

Firstly to 'sam'.....this question is about 'BSE' (Baby Scoop Era)closed records, not about today's records. I am a BSE mother (1964) and one's social security number was not used back in the old days for indentifying reasons as it is today, not even on hospital or adoption agency records.



To answer the question above..yes, your adoption would be 'legal' in those days...maybe not so much in current days. For those able to get a hold of agency records, 99% of the time the recipient receives the 'sanitized' (whitewashed) version. I imagine before they sent these records out to you much 'proof-reading' was done. Also more times than not, the adoption was finalized in the county of residence of the adoptive parents. Maybe your amother, at the beginning, by wanting the adoption finalized in your county of birth, was thinking she could pass you off as the child born to her? Hence the worry of the 'idol tongue'?? Just a thought.



As to who paid what during the BSE.....my mother paid my hospital bill in full, BEFORE I even gave birth. I know because she gave me the money to pay the hospital on one of my pre-natal visits at the hospital clinic. Adoption of my child at that point in my pregnancy, was not a foregone conclusion/decision in my mind nor my mother's. The hospital Social Worker though had other ideas for my baby. My mother had paid for a 'ward', but upon admission I was given a 'private room'. I know this now, because I now have my hospital records and non-id info. I was not allowed to name my baby when I was still her one and only lawful mother. But on some of the paperwork, when my baby was about 2 wks old, evidently she was in 'fostercare', (something I never knew!) and the fosterers had named her, because that first name appears on her 2 week check-up. That pissed me off...I was told, the mother of my child, I could not name her...but temporary fosterers were given that privilege.



Back during the BSE parents of the pregnant young woman also paid for the maternity home expense, from several hundred dollars to a few thousand. Many a maternity home also elicited nice 'donations' from the apars for the 'gift' of 'the baby'. So I imagine...'donations' were also welcomed by adoption agencies...being that so many back then were religiously affiliated with the major religions of the day. There were also private maternity homes....where individuals set-up their homes as maternity homes, who were in nefarious league with doctors, adoption lawyers, adoption brokers, etc. Their one and only mission, to get that baby off the mother to give to her cohorts who would then sell to adopters. And not only were parents of their pregnant daughters being milked for $$$$ by the maternity home...many of their daughters were farmed out as unpaid 'house-servants'. Maybe the owners of these homes were big donors of maternity homes, therefore entitled to have a pregnant house-servant/babysitter for free.



So back in the BSE...no adopter can ever justify the 'fees'' paid to an adoption agency. The adoption agencies were paying nothing for the pregnant young mother back then. So in order for these adoption agency's doors to stay open...adopters had to be offering 'donations'. Maternity Homes, which were in great abundance during the BSE, were double-dipping. They got the bucks from the grandparents of the baby and the adopters....nifty little set-up they had going there. But of course, I must be some angry, bitter old burfmuggle...cause God Knows...it was all about 'in the best interest of the baby'!!! Bullshite!!!



O! and lest I forget... I also think many an adoption agency once the baby was irrevocably surrendered to the agency, applied for welfare $$$$ on behalf of the infant ( had seen this on one mother's records). When a baby is surrendered to an agency, the agency then becomes a legal quasi-parent of the baby, with full control to do with as deemed necessary. And of course the word 'abandoned' was used by adoption agencies...I imagine that word helped them in getting yet more $$$$$ for human flesh. Yet the adoption workers had no problems telling us mothers how awful and degrading it would be for us to go on welfare, yet they dipped their filthy hands into the welfare coffers AFTER they had 'control' of our babies. O! I went off on a tangent...I am sorry...just thinking about this stuff so pisses me off!

Answer 2

SJM, I have been told that ordinarily babies were adopted in the county or even the state of the natural mother's residence...even if the mother had given birth in a different state. But that didn't always happen, obviously.



Does your natural mother have access to these records also? If not, it is disturbing that personal details of her life can be revealed without her having the same access.





During the BSE, different financial arrangements were made.My parents paid my medical bills directly to our doctor and the hospital

. I went to an agency that offered "help" in the form of temporary care.It advertised itself as a "charity"...funded by grants. This is what I was told when I asked how it was funded.But, hopeful pre-adopters were also paying this agency and I was not told this when I asked.



ETA: sam: no one has to give out their social security number....not a good idea to even suggest that natural parents should have to provide this to anyone.

ETA2:I signed a temporary care contract for my child, offered by the "kindly worker, which the social worker then ripped out of my hands. She took my son and then the phone calls began, threats to "sign a surrender"..or be terminated in court. This was an old BSE strategy which is still in use today. It took me 32 years, but I finally got a copy of that care contract. It says I am still my son's mother.

ETA3:I am thinking that the 400 dollars for room and board might have been because the agency also ran a "home" or provided housing for pregnant women with other families who "took in pregnant girls." This was sometimes arranged through the agency. A pregnant girl would live with a family.The family would get some money and so would the agency.

Answer 3

I feel for you. What should happen in adoption is the records should be sealed until the child is 18 then should be opened up for the child. When adoption you get the records medical anyways of the father and mother. There should be record like the natural mother and fathers name and ss number last known address, grandparents names address, sister and brothers ETC. Non of these need to be whitewash

The couple who stole my grandson didn't want him to know anything about his family left behind and that is truly wrong.

Answer 4

I know that my parents paid all the costs for doctors, hospital, etc. Would be interesting to know what the APs paid, or what they thought they were paying for.