Loveday Writing

Love Child was a unique show for me to review as it was based on real-life forced adoption that happened in Australia between the 1950s and 1980s.

The forced adoption practices during this period consisted of applying the ‘clean break’ theory and the framework of closed adoption. The ‘clean break’ theory involved removing the baby from the mother immediately after birth with no physical contact between them ever taking place, and a closed adoption followed within a few weeks after birth, so mother and baby were permanently and completely unaware of each other’s identity.

The Australian Senate Inquiry Report into Forced Adoption was released in 2012 and then-Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, apologised to everyone subjected to forced adoption practices, on behalf of the Australian Government in 2013. Love Child premiered on the Nine Network the following year.