We now have research that proves without a doubt what adoptees and natural parents have known for ages. Several researchers have studied these theories and in every case, indications are that infants separated from thier natural parents at birth suffer trauma and broken bonds.

Noted researcher and author of "The Secret Life of the Unborn Child", Dr. Thomas Verney, and his associate Dr. Brian Sapp, have done some amazing research on prenatal development and found ingenious ways to test the cognitive and emotional responses of unborn children. He has found that pre- born infants are able to recognize their mother's voices in utero, and have a distinct preference for them after birth. They can detect sounds, and emotional tone by 6 mos gestation if not before. They can learn and will make attempts to influence their mother's behaviors. He spoke to an Adoptive Families of America audience about his methods and findings and their implications for adoptive families.

During his presentation he stated:

"The importance of these findings cannot be over-stressed. It used to be thought that an infant adopted at birth "never even knew his mother". We now know this is not true. He has a 9 month history with her, in which bonding has likely taken place, and in which most certainly he has become accustomed to her sound, smell, chemistry and interaction with him. There is no doubt that when that child is born and he or she is put to live with someone else, it is as if you and I from one moment to the next were placed on the moon. It's just a total, total separation from everything that you had ever known. This is a tremendous trauma. And then, if they are unlucky enough to have multiple care givers, in other words, if they are unlucky enough to have two or three foster homes and then finally come into an adoptive family, by that time, they have been through hell. And to pretend that things are otherwise is just being awfully unrealistic. We might as well face the facts and try to overcome them rather than play ostrich hide our head in the sand."

(An audio-tape recording of Dr. Verney's talk is available from AFA at 612-535-4829. The title to ask for is "Pre and Perinatal Perspectives of Adoption" by Thomas Verney.)

About Keeping Your Baby:
• Resources to Help You Keep Your Baby
! Support Groups for Expectant and New Mothers: Parenting Insights and MostLovingOption!
• Confronting the Myths of Single Parenting
• Alternatives to Adoption
• A Special Message for Grandparents

About Adoption:
• The "Adoption Option"
• Adoption Myths and Facts
Reproductive Exploitation
Lures that Reproductive Predators Use
• “Things I Wish I Had Known When I Was Considering Adoption” (pdf file)
The OPEN LIES of “OPEN ADOPTION”
• Wisdom From a Reunited Natural Mother
• The Adoption Industry
• Effects of Adoption on the the Mother
• Psychological Disability In Exiled Natural Mothers

Why Your Baby Needs YOU and NOT a "Substitute Mother":
• The Decision That Changed My Life: Keeping My Baby
• Bonding Before Birth
• "What Baby-Brokers Don't Tell You about Adoptees" by Anne Patterson
• "birth-" Mothers Exploited By Adoption (www.exiledmothers.com)
• "My adoption story" by Brandy L.

Looking for Support, Information, Resources for Keeping Your Baby? Mentors? Other young mothers? Check out our two support groups: