There was formal and informal adoption abroad in Finland until the mid-1970s. Lack of social support and a sharp climate of attitudes led mothers in difficult situations to respond to newspaper reports and abandon their children.
“Adopted. Danish young couple hal. into your own health. 1–6 months for a Finn. child. ”
A Danish couple searched for a baby in Finland in Helsingin Sanomat in a February 9, 1974 newspaper.
In the 1970s, a Nordic welfare state was already being built in Finland, but at the same time, foreign couples were looking for children in Finland for adoption in the newspapers. And the Finns responded to these announcements.
Remember Unlike the Nordic countries, Finland was still a donor country for adopted children in the 1970s. Children were formally and informally adopted from Finland until the mid-1970s.
Most children were adopted in Sweden and other Nordic countries, and some children in the United Kingdom and the United States, among others.
HS said from the Danish Lotte Thomsen from Rydahl, who visited Finland in January to look for his biological relatives. Born in Lahti in 1972, Thomsen Rydahl was adopted to Denmark as a baby.
Formal adoptions were handled by municipalities and Save the Children.
“In that sense, Finland was a rare developed country that has been doing such activities for about a long time,” says the development manager. Kaisa Tervonen-Arnkil Save the Children Association.
Adoption activities was lively in Finland from the 1950s to the 1970s.
After the war, there were many children in Finland – many orphans and children who were not cared for by parents or relatives for one reason or another. There were also many orphanages, but they were not considered good places for young children to grow up.
Society did not support single mothers, and the atmosphere towards them was steep. Children born out of wedlock could also be blindfolded.
It was considered that the adoption was in the interests of both: the child would have a family and a home, the mother would be spared the stigma and could go on with her life.
A lot of adoption work was done. Efforts were made to place children in Finnish families, but there were more children without families than there were adopters.
Giving children to foreign couples in need of a child was seen as a good option. Already during the war, 70,000 Finns had been sent to more stable conditions in Sweden and Denmark, where some remained.
Sodan even after that, especially Swedish and Danish couples asked children about Finland. In Sweden and Denmark, children were not given much adoption, as single mothers were supported there.
Adoption activities from Finland abroad were busiest in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The extradition of Finnish children for adoption abroad was reported in the newspapers of that time. According to Statistics Finland’s monetary value converter, FIM 600 in 1974 corresponds to about 611 euros in current money.
The backgrounds of the families were clarified as well as possible, say the Save the Children social workers who took care of the adoptions in the 1950s and 1970s. Tarja Pösö interviewed for his memoir study.
According to Pösö, some of the couples who adopted a Finnish child had some connection to Finland: some came from Finland or lived in Finland.
Official Alongside adoption activities, a dubious phenomenon also emerged: foreign couples are looking for children to be adopted through newspaper ads. Women in difficult life situations seized these opportunities and abandoned their children.
“Mothers were tempted to give birth abroad, and they might be paid when they gave up their children. Mothers in a desperate situation went along with this, “says Kaisa Tervonen-Anrkil.
“There could have been a lot of this informal adoption then, even though we don’t know the amounts. Even then, it was considered an undesirable and worrying phenomenon. It had the characteristics of child trafficking, as the aim was to get things organized with money. ”
Newspaper advertisements in Helsingin Sanomat in the summer of 1966.
Helsingin Sanomat wrote about adoptions from Finland to Denmark on January 3, 1974. According to the magazine, the largest number of adopted children came to Denmark from South Korea at that time, followed by Finland.
According to HS, the Danish couples paid FIM 600 for the adoption and for the hospital care and maintenance of the mother to be born in Denmark. According to the calculation method based on the cost of living index, FIM 600 at that time is approximately EUR 611.
The article estimates that up to 250–300 young Finnish children get a home in Sweden and Denmark every year. A Finnish mother who usually gives up her child can be found in a newspaper ad.
“We are not particularly fond of the way Finnish children are adopted, but it is legal. We would like the adoption of Finnish children to take place in the same way as the adoption of non-Scandinavian children and not in this more or less dubious way, ”commented the then head of the Danish Ministry of Justice. J. Herman.
How How many children from Finland were eventually adopted abroad?
According to Kaisa Tervonen-Arnkil, adoption abroad was a marginal phenomenon compared to domestic adoptions. Yet in the 1950s and 1970s, at least hundreds of Finnish children were adopted abroad officially and informally.
Doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki Heikki Parviainen has also sidelined adoptions from Finland abroad. According to him, data is poorly available, especially from the 1950s and 1960s.
According to Tarja Pösö’s research, in 1960–1976 Save the Children Finland cared for 150–170 adopted children abroad.
According to Parviainen, the most reliable data is from the 1970s. Then, for example, the long-term executive director of Save the Children Finland Elina Rautanen investigated international adoption activities in connection with the reform of the Adoption Act.
In 1970, 94 adoptions were made abroad from Finland, and the following year 88. In 1970–1976, there were a total of 331 official adoptions abroad. The most recent of these – one adoption – took place in 1976.
“Rautanen mentioned the UN report that in 1971 Finland would have been the third largest country for sending children abroad after South Korea and South Vietnam. It could be interesting to take a look at this study, ”Parviainen says.
Researchers the number of private adoptions is difficult to estimate as they have not been recorded. If the mother gave birth abroad, the child may not have been entered in the Finnish registers.
Newspaper ads in the early 1970s seeking to adopt a child.
Authorities and the Save the Children Association are working to eradicate newspaper advertising and unofficial adoption activities during the 1970s. Press advertisements related to adoptions were prohibited by the 1979 Adoption Act.
“International profile raising was also involved. Finland did not want to appear as a country that cannot take care of its children, ”says Parviainen.
In the 1970s changes took place in society that had a significant impact on both domestic and foreign adoption activities.
New methods of contraception became more widely available. The 1970 Abortion Act also allowed abortion for social reasons. In the early 1970s, the birth rate fell to a record low.
From 1973 onwards, municipalities had to ensure the availability of day care facilities. Women’s education and employment increased. Social security developed and living standards rose.
In the 1970s, the position and attitudes towards single parents improved. During the decade, the number of children admitted for adoption in Finland collapsed, and the trend towards international adoption changed: Finnish families began to apply for adopted children from abroad.
Sources: Heikki Parviainen, The Changing Nature of Adoption in Finland; Tarja Pösö, Memories about the intercountry adoption of Finnish Children.
#Adoptions #young #welloff #Danish #couple #adopt #child #cost #childbirth #paid #1970s #children #adopted #oldfashioned #Finland
Leave a Reply