I hope that's helpful; please let me know if I can help dig up anything else or anything more specific.

All those findings (other than mine) are from this report, which I'm happy to send if it's paywalled!

cwlibrary.childwelfare.gov/discovery/de...

Another: (n=156) found that 98.7% of mothers wanted ANY contact.

Another: (n=220) found that 70.9% of mothers wanted contact to increase; only 1.8% wanted it to decrease.

Of course. You can cite the research in the book (n=77 for adoptions since 2000; 100% wanted some access).

A quantitative study (n=56) found that 96.4% of mothers thought of contacting their child at least "sometimes" and 0% thought about it "never."

This includes mothers who closed their own adoptions because it was too painful to be in contact — they couldn’t handle openness, but still wanted to 1) know their child was safe; 2) be available to their child if they needed them.

I have some cites I can link to when back on my computer, but I’ll say that 100% of my participants wanted some contact with their child.

Thank you. 💜 (And thank you for sharing this excerpt. When I go back and read the transcripts of my interviews with Shelby, I often laugh. She is so funny and so over it — trauma leads so many to silence, but she was in a “nothing left to lose” frame of mind. Every researcher should be so lucky.)

I got blocked too! At least I’m in good company. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you, Tony. 💜

If you that as an attack, I’m afraid the reading list will not be a fun one for you, but best of luck!

Maybe just take a minute to listen to anyone impacted by adoption before saying something definitive about how the system works and who should have access to it? Maybe when Kayela is done her 24-7-forever shift as an adopted person she’ll have time to personally educate you more.

Just your typical blue collar guy whose grandfather worked closely with Eero Saarinen.

Thanks, Amy. 💜

Thanks for saying that, Nicole. I’m a bit sensitive to this for *other reasons* (and you’re right readers won’t interpret it as “literally nothing”). As always, grateful to you for your thoughtful reporting and beautiful writing.

I understand. But I’ll be honest — it’s a bummer to see a piece like this, speaking to the exact questions I spent 10 years studying, suggesting there isn’t any research on this. It’s a brilliant article, but it’s disappointing to have that frame included.

I mean. There’s definitely something.

“A professor at Drexel University’s law school, told me that when she speaks with research librarians—looking for recent studies on, say, “birth mothers and their emotions after relinquishment”—the librarians will tell her, “There’s nothing.”

It’s so well done, Janine. I hope you will have a chance to read it.

Thank you for reading and sharing. Really means a lot. 💜

Thank you, Karen! Looking forward to hearing what you think when you’ve had a chance to read.