Don’t hold your child. Don’t look at your child. You will never be able to let her go.
From the 1960’s to her sixties, this was the mantra of Cathryn Vogeley’s existence after she became pregnant at eighteen. Betrayed by her loved ones and her church, she was shuttled off to a home and a crippling confinement, then told to resume life as if nothing had happened. That’s how it was for girls caught in the oldest predicament during a time that Vogeley christens The Baby Scoop Era. You’ve heard this story before, right? Wrong. Not with this many breath-taking plot twists. To hear her vivid account is to step back into a time many young women today could not comprehend, a time when they were taught to expect domesticity and to endure no matter how unhappy the union or the children it produced. Then there were the babies to consider.
During this time of heightened debate surrounding the abortion vs. adoption question, this story of a one woman’s tumultuous decision and its lasting psychological and physical repercussions is one that proponents on both sides should read. I would recommend the hardcopy (284 pages in paperback) rather than the audiobook (7 hours 25 minutes), as I found Michelle Morgan’s narration to have a one-style-fits-all delivery that robs the story of its drama. To watch a book trailer click here.