A tale of young men and women caught in the crossfire during the cultural and sexual revolution of 1960s Australia. Courtesy: Channel 9
Jessica Marais plays smart and sophisticated midwife Joan Miller in Love Child. Photo: Channel 9 Source: Supplied
IT'S the surprise local hit watched by more the one million viewers every Monday night, but now that Love Child has wrapped, what do the Australians who lived through the experience make of it?
Love Child is, after all, much more than an engrossing television drama. It's a depiction of real life events and a snapshot of our shameful history in which young unwed mothers were forced to give up their children for adoption by their parents and the government.
Lily Arthur, 64, is one mother who knows the pain all too well. She lost her child in 1967.
"One month before my 17th birthday, police offers came into my bedroom in the middle of the night and took me away," she told news.com.au. She was forced to work in the laundry the very afternoon she gave birth.
Jessica Marais plays midwife Joan Miller in Love Child. Picture: Channel 9 Source: Supplied
"It was nothing like the fun time you see the girls having on the show. We were locked up, forced to work and we had no contact with the outside world. These places were just full of young, depressed girls waiting to deliver children they knew they would lose. It was like waiting to get the guillotine."
Ms Arthur, who was folding pillow cases the day after giving birth, says that while girls in the 60s and 70s were more liberated and there was an upbeat atmosphere with carefree fashion and music, she resents any implication that they were "sl**s" or that they gave their children up willingly.
"I met someone the other day who said he was ashamed to say he was adopted because of how the girls in the program were portrayed," said Ms Arthur.
"A lot of the girls were drugged when they signed those consent forms and it's harmful for the children today to think it was voluntary."
"We were locked up, forced to work and we had no contact the outside world," said Ms Arthur. Photo: Channel 9 Source: Supplied
"An awful lot of women who lived through that era are dead now because of the scorn and shame and everything else we suffered," she says.
"I found my son 16 years ago and my relationship with him in reasonably good, but that emotional connection you should have is not there. I can't demonstrate it to my other child either. We were robbed of our motherhood."
Susan Ross was a midwife during the 70s and believes the show has captured the real life events well.
"The only criticism I have is that the main midwife is very assertive which would not have been the case back then," she said.
"We did not have the ability available to speak up no matter what we thought. There was so much fear so we would have been terrified to speak out on behalf of the mothers."
Ms Ross is of course talking about the character of Joan Miller played by Jessica Marais who acts as a guardian for the girls, helping them find their adopted children and getting them back on their feet.
Life in those hospitals was incredibly hard on the midwives as well as the mothers, as both were kept in the dark about the children's health and adoption and were not offered any counselling or compassion.
"We were very proud of our starched white uniforms back in the day but they're certainly not very conducive to getting on the floor and helping women in a birth," says Ms Ross. Photo: Channel 9 Source: Supplied
"Up until I was asked to talk about this, I had blocked it all out," admits Ms Ross, who is now a doula and founder of Birth Right www.birthright.com.au.
"That scene in Love Child where the midwife straps Annie's breasts to prevent milk, I did that. We would bind women from waist to the neck. It must have been excruciating painful for them but we weren't allowed to discuss it."
Mark Finch, 42, may not have lived through the 60s but he knows the Love Child story first hand as he was a child of forced adoption.
Born in 1972 when his mother was 17 years old, Mr Finch says he was horrified to learn what had happened to her.
"My mother was put in a Salvation Hospital for women at Marrickville in Sydney for nine months," he says. "She had no contact with the outside world, no letters and no visitors."
When he was able to track her down three years ago his mother told him of the night he was taken away. She cried for the night nurse to let her see him and in a scene reminiscent of one from Love Child, she was taken down for one quick hug but that was all.
Growing up not knowing his birth parents was traumatic for Mr Finch, who says his siblings and school mates made fun of him and he had a lot of problems with relationships as he got older.
"Finally meeting up with my mum bought up a lot of stuff for me, like what I missed out on," he says.
Mandy McElhinney stars as strict Matron Frances Bolton in the drama series. Photo: Channel 9 Source: Supplied
"She said she hopes finding her gives me peace. It has started to help in a creeping way but it still hasn't filled the void."
Mr Finch's family is just one of hundreds of thousands trying to come to terms with the unlawful practises of forced adoption in the 60s and 70s.
The federal government issued a national apology to victims on March 21, 2013 but since then people like Ms Arthur say they have seen no action or increased funding as promised.
"To take from a person every piece of their identity and expect them to live happily goes beyond ignorance. This is why we have so many problems today."
Hopefully if there is one thing the popularity of television show Love Child can do is to start the conversation and dispel some of the locked emotions faced by so many mothers, fathers, midwives and children.
"It started the conversation for me," says Ms Ross. "I hope it can for others, too."
Missed the first season? Love Child is available on DVD from April 10 at leading retailers. For more information, help or support, visit Origins, supporting people separated by adoption.
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