Confessions of a Lost Mother - Softcover

Barton, Elisa M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965079503 ISBN 13: 9780965079501

Publisher: Elisa m Barton, 1996

Synopsis

"What was it like, giving up a child?"

This is the question that prompted the author to examine, for the first time, her true feelings about the child she gave up for adoption some twenty years earlier. In this collection of email letters and posts to mailing lists, the above question and similar ones are discussed by people from all three sides of the adoption triad: birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees. Topics of discussion include searching for one's birth parents or child, the fallacy of "birthmother's choice," abortion and adoption, and "The Best Adoption Whorehouse in America."

To say this book is an emotional one is a massive understatement: it is by turns heartwrenching and ecstatic; an incitement to anger and a blanket of comfort. I can hardly imagine what it would be like for someone who is a part of the adoption triad (I am not) to read it--I had to put it down a few times and wait for the tears to subside.

Thus, Confessions Of A Lost Mother is not just a book for those of an adoption triad, but for anyone interested in the psychology and sociology of family. In a very personal way, this book brings to light what adoption can really be like--and it's not about turning your back and going merrily on your way, which seems to be a favorite phrase of those who counsel pregnant teens. Read this book only if you are prepared to think and feel--and to have many of your previous notions turned upside down.

About this title

Review

When she was 20 years old Elisa Barton had an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and gave birth to a baby boy. She signed the surrender papers seventy-two hours after birth. Ten months later she graduated from school and got married. Twenty years later a question appearing on her computer screen triggered thoughts and feelings that had lain dormant for over two decades. The question was: "What was it like, giving up a child?". The result of her soul searching and self-examination has resulted in a riveting book -- Confessions Of A Lost Mother. This book should be on the reading list of every highschool "family life" curriculum and on the shelves of every community library and planned parenthood clinic in the country. -- Midwest Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Elisa m Barton
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0965079503
• ISBN 13: 9780965079501
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 157