The Other Mother: A Woman's Love for the Child She Gave Up for Adoption - Hardcover

Carol Schaefer's first book, a memoir entitled The Other Mother: A Woman's Love for the Child She Gave Up for Adoption (SoHo Press, 1991), is considered a classic in adoption literature. The Other Mother is listed in 500 Great Books by Women, a Penguin Books Reader's Guide, a list that goes back to the eleventh century. The book was a Literary Guild Alternative Selection and nominated as one of the Best Books of 1991 by the American Library Association. It has been translated into German and Italian. Adapted as a television movie by NBC in 1995, The Other Mother, starring Frances Fisher, scored high in the ratings with 25 million viewers. The story of the making of the movie was featured in McCall's Magazine. Acquired by the Lifetime Channel, the movie aired many times from 2000 to 2008.The film is now available for viewing on Youtube. She has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, and many local television and radio programs around the country and in Canada. As an Adoption Reform Advocate, she has often been a keynote speaker and given numerous workshops at adoption conferences since 1991. She has authored three other books, including Grandmothers Counsel the World, which has been translated into 12 languages. She also works as an editor, journalist and photographer. The sequel to The Other Mother is just completed.

In 1965, at age nineteen, Carol Schaefer gave her son up for adoption. Sent to a Catholic home for unwed mothers where she wasn't allowed to use her last name or share personal information, she was told repeatedly that she made the right decision for the baby, that she would soon forget. But she never forgot and remembers the home as a place of great loss. She recalls signing the adoption papers: "The consequences of those signatures would permeate every aspect of my life, my son's life, Chris's [the father's] life, and many, many other lives, forever. I had no legal counsel, no psychological counseling. I was nineteen and alone. I sat for a while, stunned, overcome by my desolation." When her baby was two days old he was taken away, and she vowed to find him when he was eighteen. She married and had two more sons, all the time remembering she had another child, one she might walk past and not recognize. Carol Schaefer's honesty about the social pressures of the times touches deeply: the feeling that adoption was a middle class disease, the shame and secrecy surrounding her pregnancy, and the effects giving up her child had on her self-esteem and future. Strength, sadness, joy, and the power of undeniable love abound in this book. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith