A news series of articles on natural mothers is to be published in the Detroit News this week. It is a three part series set to run on the front page. If you are not in the area, you can find the Detroit News online at www.detnews.com.

The series is headlined as Empty Arms, Empty Heart and is slated to run on Page 1A of the Detroit News on Tuesday and then today, Thursday December 21st. The articles are being written by Marney Rich Keenan who is a regular columnist with the Detroit News who did a review on Ann Fessler’s recent book.

The link to the first part of the article is at http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061219/LIFESTYLE/612190334.

The article starts out by explaining how natural mothers are the invisible walking wounded and that when these natural mothers lost their children there was no public grieving and when they cried they cried alone.

The article goes onto to explain a typical scenario of how these natural mothers are now in their 50’s and 60’s and found themselves pregnant and unmarried when they were teenagers during the years after World War II before abortion became legal.

The article compares then and now and how today these women are called single moms but back then they were referred to as out of wedlock mothers carrying illegitimate children. The article goes on to explain how these natural mothers were removed from their daily lives and routines of high school or college and rushed off to a maternity home, sworn to secrecy to protect themselves and their families reputations.

The articles talks about the decades of grief, depression, alcohol addiction, guilt, intimacy difficulties, lack of trust and damaged self esteem. The author of the article acknowledges that these women after decades of silence and shame want to be heard. They want and need support. They want new legislation that would open sealed adoption records of that the children they relinquished and the natural parents can exchange medical information as well as other information if they choose. Mostly, they want to heal.

The article then quotes several natural mothers and what they have done through the years to help or aid them in their adoption journey. The article then quoted several archived stories from the Detroit News discussing the rise in out of web lock births. This was attributed to “torrid movie and tv scenes, obscene literature, lack of parental discipline, night rides and hard liquor, boys and girls registering at cheap hotels and cabins, expose magazines, pep pills and reefer parties, and boys and girls going steady too long”.

The article then quotes a Port Huron Circuit Judge at a meeting of the Michigan Judges Association saying "Removing the illegitimate child from its mother would give it the opportunity of growing up in a social and religious atmosphere acceptable to society. Such acceptance is the birthright of every child.

"In too many cases, mothers keep their illegitimate child, not for love, but as a cross to bear. The child is not a doll, but a human being that should have the opportunity of growth removed from the selfish love of a mother who is using the child as a means of reminder to herself of her mistake."

The article ends with a letter written by a natural mother that was written after giving birth and returning to college.