Reports on the story of historical forced adoptions, and the mothers� search forjustice. A warning 7 there are some details in this programme that some viewers may find upsetting. I loved her so much, i still love her. Im her mum. It was to be a secret, it was not to be discussed. I was mourning for a child that i had lost. | i canjust remember lying there thinking. Better to die. A historical injustice is what happened to us. Other countries have recognised it, and its high time ours did. Everyone was saying, | if you love your baby, you will give him up. The undiluted joy of a new baby. The parental bond that forms after birth is a foundation of our human existence. But what if the mother was pressured, even coerced, into giving up her baby for adoption just because she was not married . I couldnt even imagine her, i think the heartbreak would just be, you would never recover. You couldnt, its impossible. The love is just immediate, isnt it . You couldnt recover from that ever. 60 years ago, British Society was very different. The brides name is stella, shes 19, lives in barnet. | marriages like this one were the cornerstone of respectability. For others, having a baby outside of wedlock would be breaking one of the most potent taboos. Till death us do part. But what if you did become pregnant before you married . I was really, really scared, and ijust blotted the whole thing out, because, apparently, thats what teenagers do. Diana was 16 when she became pregnant. Soon after, she met a Social Worker who made it clear what was to come. She spent a lot of time telling me things along the lines of, you will do the best thing, this is your only option. You will give your child to a proper mummy and daddy, because you cant possibly be a parent to your child. You are not fit to be a mother. The scene is a holiday camp at butlins. I was working in butlins holiday camp in bognor. I was going out with one of the red coats. We became intimate and i got pregnant. Veronica was also unmarried. My mother didnt tell my father because she said it would kill him. So he never knew . No. Ever . Never. It was regarded as so shameful that veronica was secretly sent to a mother and baby home in another part of london. She and her mother had to create a story to explain her disappearance to her father. I used to meet my mother at wimbledon station, and she would come with paper and an envelope, and wed concoct this letter that i was working away from home in spain, and that i was having a good time, that i would be home soon. And take it back to my father, obviously took it out of the envelope. Bless him, hejust thought it was true. Thought you were away . Yeah. This was in 1967, i was 16. I met my boyfriend, and then i became pregnant. Gill had been in a steady relationship, but everyone from her parents to her doctor made it clear she had done wrong. It was the most shameful thing that could happen. I it was described as a fate worse than death, to be i unmarried and pregnant. Some individuals may have embraced sexual liberation in the 1960s, but society wasnt so ready. I was 18. I dont think i wanted to believe that i was pregnant for a long time. Judy was also unwed, and also met a Social Worker. She almost immediately suggested adoption to me. Certainly, there would not have been any idea in my head, i dont think, before that. She presented it to me, as far as i can remember, as this wonderful opportunity almost to give my baby a loving home that i could not give her. So that was the start of me being indoctrinated, if you like. The pressure on unmarried women to give up their babies for adoption took hold in the 1950s and coincided with the growing demand for babies from childless couples in post war britain. The shame judy felt was so great, she too went to extreme lengths to explain her pregnancy. Ijust invented a husband. I bought a wedding ring. When i was asked by the girls i worked with what his name was, i told them that his surname was the same as mine, because i didnt want anybody to know that i was not married and that my child was going to be illegitimate. This, ladies and gentlemen, is london. By 1968, around 16,000 illegitimate babies a year were being put up for adoption in england and wales. We were asked to prepare for the baby. But thousands of those women, including anne, wanted to keep their babies. Yet everyone, from baby homes to Social Workers to doctors, midwives and nurses, made them feel like they had no choice but to give them up. It was coercion. The phrase was, this will be for the best. This will be the best for the baby, this will be the best for you. Because if you really love this baby, you will make sure that he has a different life, and not with you, and that the best thing to do is to give him up. Tonights debate is about the abolition of discrimination. In later life, anne would become an mp and Junior Health minister. But as a teenager in a maternity hospital, even at the moment of delivery, she says a midwife denied her pain relief on purpose. When i asked for help, i wasnt given any help for pain. In fact, i was told, i remember, you will remember this, so as you wont be wicked again, you bad girl. You wont be wicked again. That was really, really difficult. I was 17 years old, this was 1963, and i found myself pregnant. Pat was also unmarried when she went to give birth to her son. She too faced the same hostility from nurses. The place that i was really made to feel dreadful was when i went into the hospital to have him i rememberthat the Nursing Staff in there were not veryl nice and very abusive to me. | i remember one particular nurse| who seemed to enjoy being quite rough when she examined me. I remember saying to me, how did you get like this| if you dont like somebody doing this to you . It was really quite abusive, they were quite abusive. It was horrid, that really hurt me. I was a human being, why could i not havel been accepted for that . All i had done was i was having a baby, i had made a mistake, | but i was still a human being. 16 year old diana faced an equally cruel experience in the delivery room. Somebody said, its a girl. She said, this baby is flagged for adoption. Ill take her away. And i can remember yelling and saying, please bring her back, bring her back. Everybody left, and i was lying there on my own, on this thing, covered with a sheet and crying for a baby that i couldnt reach. They left me there for four hours. I canjust remember lying there, thinking itd be better to die. But i didnt die. But the trauma that thousands of unmarried women faced during the birth of their children was not the end of their experience. And then the letter came. New mothers, likejudy, were informed when to travel to the Adoption Centre and to sign the consent form. Take us to the day of the handover, when you passed your baby daughter on to the authorities. How difficult a day was that . She was asleep. She never woke up. They took her from me and gave her to the people who were waiting in the next room to adopt her. And that was it. How could that have happened to me . But my mum was waiting for me downstairs. And we went shopping. We went shopping i loved her so much, i still love her. Im her mum. Anne wasnt even allowed to say goodbye to her baby when he was taken away by a midwife. I went to collect him from the nursery, and he was not there. She said, hes gone. Ill tell you where he is hes in that room over there, in that building over there. His new mummy will come for him, and she will be very happy, and they will both be very happy, and thats the last you will see of him. You can come with me into the bathroom, because i need to put you in the bath, and lets get rid of this milk. Six weeks later, anne received a letter informing her that he would grow up in a happy and secure atmosphere with no stigma of illegitimacy. The Coldnesss Of Handover was also what pat went through. On that morning, i hadl to dress him in the best clothes i had for him and put him into a carrycot, and then i had to take him into one of the rooms and just leave him on the floor, and then turn around and walk away. He was taken away from me just after that, and i knew i was never going to see him again. I knew i would never see him again. That was it. Diana is still haunted by the moment she last saw her baby. I was holding her right up until the point when a woman in a white coat came out and said its time. The woman spun around and said, say bye bye. Interestingly, as i started to buckle, my daughter started to howl, and she cried all the way out of the room. I remember that noise. Academic studies point to Hundreds Of Thousands of unmarried mothers in britain being pressured to hand over their babies in the three decades after the second world war. But it wasnt just the Birth Mothers left with an agonising sense of loss. So too were many of their children. I had an identity forced upon me. It left me with a sense of not belonging, not really knowing who i was. I feel like i just wasnt the person i was meant to be. I was somebody else. Jan was born in 1960 to an 18 year old unmarried mother. The adoption didnt go well. I had no love whatsoever. Im angry, im angry for the system allowing me to be given to those people. Im angry for the trauma and pain caused to my birth mother. Im angry that all of this has impacted on my life, my relationships. Its lifelong, it continues throughout your life, and that is whether you have a really good adaptive a really good adoptive family or not. The humiliation inflicted on the unmarried mothers and their babies can even be found in documents from the time. 0ne official wrote on an adoption paper, the baby is beautiful, unlike its mother. I was born in 1963 in a mother and baby home in northampton. It was always made obvious that it was not something that you talked about. Gaynor also came to resent being adopted. Although now happily married with her own children, the stigma of being the child of an unmarried mother has stayed with her. In your life, you think of the words secrets and lies, so you keep it secret from a lot of people, so its a bit like youre not living the right life. What would you have wished for . To have stayed with my mum. To have been allowed to be kept by the woman that gave birth to me. 0k, she was only a girl, but she was still with my dad. If they would have had support and help, you know, i should have stayed with them. Gaynor� s mother, like all the Birth Mothers, supposedly had to give their consent to have their babies adopted, but some mothers now question whether they even signed a consent form. Those doubts were reflected in this document from an adoption hearing, when the judge himself said he was doubtful about the validity of the justice of the peace� s signatures on the consent form. But some adoptions did work. I was lucky, i had really good parents. I was lucky, but what about Everyone Else . Rachel moved to canada and into a loving home but still feels her birth mother suffered an appalling injustice, having been forced to give her up. Its terrible. Its almost inhumane what happened to her. I feel terrible empathy, you know, and sorrow for her. Its terrible. But you certainly should apologise for any heinous things that you have done. An apology is at the heart of this story. Because you know the sorrow and suffering of forced adoption. Eight years ago, that is exactly what 150,000 Australian Women received when their horrific stories of forced adoption came to light. Today, this parliament, on behalf of the australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced of the separation of mothers from their babies. It was the worlds First Official apology forforced adoptions. Since then, the government in flanders has apologised, and the senate in canada has recommended an apology. Young mothers and their Sons And Daughters were forced to pay a terrible price. Earlier this year, the Irish Government apologised to former residents of mother and baby homes for the way that they were treated over many decades. I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited i upon irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby. Home or a county home. Now the Birth Mothers in britain have sent this letter to the Prime Minister borisjohnson, asking the government here to say sorry. A historical injustice is what happened to us. Other countries have recognised it, and it is high time ours did. Its about me and many mothers like me feeling like i did not give him up. I did not abandon him. So, therefore, the apology is to clear almost my name and my sons name, that he was not given away. I feel very bitter, and i do feel resentful, yes. It is something that should not have happened. I have often thought about the way i have been with babies. No good cuddling a baby they get taken away from you. Did you give up your baby, give away your baby . No, she was quite literally taken away from me. I didnt feel entitled to fight, because i felt that i was worthless. Everything i went through left me with a sense of complete and utter worthlessness. I felt as if i didnt deserve anything, i had no right to ask for anything i wanted. Adoption has always been there, theres always been that nagging feeling of loss, guilt, shame, anger. Well, it would be very good i if somebody said, im sorry. But it would be so good to give permission to all Those Thousands of women and children who have suffered so much over. The years without a voice, it would be so helpful to show people that what happened to us was wrong. They told me i would forget. And i would go on, and i could have other children. But i neverdid. Why would you when you think that you have given your child away . Why would you think that you i deserve to have other children . What have you missed out on . Well, being a mum. Ive got stepchildren now, but i do not know how to mother. I dont know how to, because i havent done it. Its notjust me, it is thousands of women. And it was so wrong. Clear and calm out there across most of the uk, and Bank Holiday Monday promises to be another warm and sunny day. In fact, the temperatures will probably be a degree or so higher. But it wont be sunny absolutely everywhere. An example here from sunday on the scottish coast a lot of haar and Sea Fret Out To sea, and we could see a Repeat Performance of that on Bank Holiday Monday. This is stubborn cloud, quite often it hugs the coast and sticks around through the course of the day. But inland, its going to be sunny. The Morning Temperatures will be typically around 7 10 degrees in towns and cities. A little bit fresher out in the countryside. So the Morning Cloud will eventually burn back to the coast as we go through the morning, and then its clear blue skies pretty much nationwide, apart from the aberdeenshire coastline. Could be only 1a degrees, whereas inland we are talking in the low to mid 20s. Another beautiful Bank Holiday Monday on the way. The week ahead, this is tuesday into wednesday, we start to see low pressure developing to the south, but its still far away. That is unsettled weather heading our way, but still on tuesday well see a lot of fine weather across the uk. A Weather Front just approaching ireland, could be a bit more cloud in northern ireland. But essentially, Little Change for most of us on tuesday. In fact, the peak of the warmth will see temperatures hitting around 26 celsius. That low edges ever closer during wednesday, and you can see showers approaching south Western Parts of the uk. Could be some thunderstorms around as well, very difficult to say exactly where because they could be hit and miss. But the vast majority of the country again enjoying clear, warm, sunny weather. On wednesday, temperatures easily into the 20s, possibly the mid 20s, and, in scotland, up to around 22 celsius for glasgow and edinburgh. How about beyond wednesday . Looks as though its going to cool off a little bit, but temperatures in some parts of the country will still hover around the 20s, for example in the south. So on the whole, its not looking bad at all. Welcome to bbc news, im reged ahmad. Our top stories could it be bye bye bibi . Israels Prime Minister remains defiant despite opposition claims they have the numbers to kick him out of office. Its been described as A Crime Against Humanity the conmen offering fake oxygen and fake drugs to the desperate in india who are battling covid. South africa is increasing its Coronavirus Restrictions as it tries to fight a new surge in infections. And facing possible expulsion from the french open the japanese Tennis Player who refuses to speak to the media