A Joint Select committee of the Tasmania Parliament has made a number of recommendations to help alleviate, suffering and emotional trauma of mothers forced to give up their babies.

Committee Chair Mrs Fran Bladel says the Select committee inquiring into the administration and delivery of adoption and related services between 1950 and 1988 received submissions and held hearings right across the state.

"In undertaking this Inquiry the Committee was aware that groups such as Adoption Jigsaw Inc and Origins were concerned by the pain their members had suffered over many years.

"These organisations and other individuals wanted those stories to be told, the past uncovered and the common threads of grief, loss and also courage and dignity placed on the record," said Mrs Bladel.

Mrs Bladel says it is clear to the Committee that for many women giving birth - particularly prior to the Adoption of Children Act 1968 - the social and environmental circumstances which prevailed, and against which they had no defence or defender, have left deep and unhealed psychological wounds.

The Select Committee found many respondents denied ever signing Adoption Consent forms, and on occasions the authenticity of signatures on documents was refuted.

Allegation of signing adoption forms under duress, or while suffering from over medication were common, with such allegations difficult to disprove or verify.

The Committee found almost all of the respondents had been less than 20 years of age at the time of birth - mostly mid to late teens with a few younger than 16 years of age.

"They were placed in homes to await the birth of their babies, with their own wishes ignored. Young, fearful inexperienced teenagers were told to put the experience behind them - that they "would get over it", Mrs Bladel said.

"The reality is that the majority of the respondents have never been able to "get over it."

The Joint Select Committee has recommended:
1. That independent counselling services be offered, with no charge, to all people concerned with adoption from 1950 - 1988;

2. That the search fee for documents relating to adoptions be waived;

3. A need for the medical history of birth families to be made readily available for adopted children and the adoptive parents;

4. There should be a greater level of follow-up scrutiny of children fostered and adopted;

5. That adoption papers stipulate that upon death of an adopted child, the birth parents must be contacted immediately;

6. Respondents to the Inquiry be encouraged and supported to publish their stories together as an important historical document;

7. Section 19(1) of the Adoption Act 1988 be amended.