Ms Christine Hennessy:

Birth mothers had to make a super-human effort in being in a position where they did not know whether their child was alive or dead. Many women we have spoken to over the years were not welcomed back by agencies when they sought the most basic information about their growing child. With modern adoptions, things have changed. Fortunately, in the case of the small number of domestic adoptions we have today, many children are placed in a semi-open or open adoption arrangements, which allows the mother to have some information about the child as he or she grows. In the past, however, mothers were treated appallingly by agencies when they went to them looking for the most basic information. In some cases, mothers were promised photographs of their children at various stages, but that right was never put on a statutory basis. It was down to the adoptive parents to follow through on those promises to the mothers. It was heartbreaking to speak to women who were let down by promises made to them by agencies and adoptive parents in terms of ongoing information about how their child was getting on. That information simply did not materialise and it certainly added hugely to the trauma of these women that they did not know how their children were faring.