Birth Parents' Experiences of Contested Adoption

Abstract

In recent years a growing proportion of adoption orders have been made without the consent of the birth mother, yet the needs of these ‘non-relinquishing’ parents have received little attention. Their need for independent support, both before and after adoption, has been recognised but seldom met. Kathy Mason and Peter Selman present findings from research evaluating birth parents' experiences of contesting the adoption of their child(ren) which was carried out as part of a wider evaluation (see references) of ‘Parents Without Children’, an innovative project offering support for non-relinquishing birth parents. The project has now ended due to a lack of funding and in the last section of this article the authors argue the need for similar services to be provided on a much wider scale.