If you have read much about adoption practices during the 60's and 70's, you might be familiar with the concept of wage homes. Maternity homes were so crowded with young pregnant women during the 60's and 70's that there was often a waiting list before a young women could get into a home.

Often women spent time during their pregnancy at a wage home first, and then entered the maternity home for only the last two months or so. Wage homes were simply private homes where pregnant women lived and worked in exchange for room and board. Some women describe this experience as being treated like slave labor.

A young woman was sent away as soon as possible after pregnancy was diagnosed to insure that the neighbors never knew her terrible "secret." Protecting the family name was extremely important during this period of time. It is difficult these days to comprehend exactly how crucial it seemed to families during this era to hide an unwed pregnancy.

Factors that made protecting the family name even more important included strong religious beliefs and families that were well-known and highly respected. Wealthy families often felt they had more at stake, and a good reputation included no premarital sex,let alone babies before marriage.

Last year I was chatting with a friend of mine who had relinquished her son during the late sixties. We were at an adoption retreat and sharing stories is popular during these events. My friend mentioned that she had stayed in a wage home for several months before entering a maternity home. Knowing that she came from a deeply religious and prominent family, I suppose that it made some sort of sense that she had.

When I asked my friend what she did in the wage home, she said that her job was to take care of the three children in the home. Although she was not considered qualified to parent her own child (because she was unmarried and yet had sex before marriage), she was good enough to take care of other people's children. Just one of the many paradoxes of the times.