FIRST MOTHER, NATURAL MOTHER (birth mother)
What's in a label? The adoption industry calls me a birth mother. Years ago, many -- like me -- accepted this label because, again we let the adoption industry tell us what we were and what we are. When courageous women such as Lee Campbell, Lorraine Dusky, and Sandra Musser began to give voice to our anger and grief, our empowerment was still in its infancy. Changes had to be incremental, even if that meant we had to accept crumbs in the beginning. Maybe adoptive parents could accept the term birth mother because her involvement would end when she was removed from the stirrups on the delivery table. We have made progress since the mid-1970s, but progress has been slow, and online posts show some backlash to increased empowerment of first mothers. The internet has been helpful in the sense of promoting communication among first mothers, but unhelpful in that the word "birthmother" has become firmly entrenched in google searches. Put up a blog without our design