Moments of Memory

The voices of women who lost their babies to adoption

This anthology is a poignant reminder of a time when the unmarried mother was stigmatised as a "fallen woman". Her child was illegitimate and in they eyes of society, illegitimacy was tantamount to criminality. Forty, fifty, sixty years later some of those unmarried mothers have written of their experiences, still vivid and influential in their lives today. For some, this is the first time they have spoken out loud. "Too often they did not see their baby's face. They couldn't soothe his first cries. Never felt her warmth or smelt her skin. They could not give their own baby a name. Those babies grew up with other names and in other homes..." Hon. Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, 21 March 2013