Unspoken

'I was two when the woman I called Mummy told me, "You came out of another mummy's tummy." I assumed there must've been something inherently wrong with me - why else would a mother give up her baby?' In 1974, at just eight weeks old, Liz Harvie - born Claire Elaine Watts - was adopted and renamed Elizabeth. Although brought up in a 'perfect' household, the trauma of being taken from her biological mother never left Liz. When she asked, 'What does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me?' she was 'Your birth parents were not married. They couldn't look after you.' Aged twenty-eight, Liz reconnected with her birth mother and finally learned the shocking truth. Yvonne had not abandoned her. A social worker had snatched her ten-day-old baby from her arms. Liz became one of 185,000 victims of forced adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales. As a young, unmarried mum, Yvonne was deemed unfit as a parent by the government, churches, adoption agencies - and her father. Liz and Yvonne are still struggling to cope with their devastating separation. As Liz says, 'The trauma of being a forced adoptee is lifelong.'