The global search for the Edinburgh baby in the photograph taken 70 years ago

The proud mum radiates happiness as she shows off her newborn baby daughter for the camera. Within weeks they would be separated, never to see each other again.

Now, a global search for the girl in the picture has been launched almost 70 years after it was taken in Glasgow, around Christmas 1954, by the sister of the baby, who neither got to know her nor grow up by her side.

Juliet Robieson, of Auckland, New Zealand, has spoken about the “lifetime of heartbreak” of her mother, Eleanor, from Edinburgh, who suffered devastating mental health problems after being forced to give up her baby for adoption when it was just six weeks old.

Ms Robieson has spoken of her family’s ordeal three months after former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a "sincere, heartfelt and unreserved” apology to women, usually unmarried, who were forced to give up their babies for adoption due to parental and societal pressures, with churches and other Christian organisations usually involved in arranging new families for the newborns. It is estimated 60,000 women in Scotland were separated from their babies in this way.

Eleanor, from Edinburgh, and her baby girl, who was born in November 1954. The two were separated six weeks after the baby's birth following her forced adoption.

Ms Robieson said she had taken up the search for her sister for her mother, who died in 2016 and had always hoped to find her daughter.

Ms Robieson added: “I knew she hoped that one day she might find her baby and she longed to apologise for giving her up. In the end she had no choice.”

Eleanor had her baby, aged 20, after her parents, who headed a “respectable, middle class family” in the Greenacre area of Edinburgh, secured a place for her at a Church of Scotland mother and baby home in Glasgow, most likely in St Andrew’s Drive on the Southside.

After nursing her newborn for six weeks, the baby’s adoption was arranged by the church and a new life then organised for Eleanor in New Zealand. She went straight from the mother and baby home to a ship at Southampton, with a one-way ticket bought by her parents, with her child left behind in Scotland.Ms Robieson, 57, said her mother “never recovered” from the forced separation or her banishment.

Jeannot Farmer, of the Movement for an Adoption Apology Scotland, said birth parents continue to be discriminated against given they can not access information about their children who were adopted.

She said: "As we neared the month of my sister’s birthday my mother would sink into depression and often be in tears. Then it would be Christmas; more tears and regrets. Then slowly my mother would recover, her mood would lift, and we’d be on a relatively even keel until her birthday came round again.”

Eleanor became pregnant by a doctor while she was training as a student nurse in London and was instantly dismissed from her role.

In New Zealand, she went on to marry and have three more children, including Ms Robieson, but started to open up about her daughter in Scotland.

Ms Robieson said: "I understood why Eleanor struggled to speak about the details; her memories were still too raw, and heavily overlaid with the shame young Scottish women were made to feel for their behaviour.”

Juliet Robieson, of New Zealand, said her mother never recovered from losing her daughter. PIC: Contributed.

Eleanor told Ms Robieson “she had no choice” but to sign the adoption papers – a move she “instantly regretted”.

She added: “She desperately wanted to find her, and she did try, only to be blocked at every turn by Scottish laws and institutions.

"Eleanor spoke of institutions losing records, births that weren’t registered and key information being lost when birth certificates were altered. I’m now trying to find my way through the same labyrinth because she wanted me to keep trying to find her baby.”

Adoption records are held by both courts and National Records of Scotland, who describe the documents as among the “most confidential” they hold and include original birth certificates, details of the new parents and the circumstances surrounding the adoption.

In order to protect the identity of the adopted child, sealed papers can only be opened following an application from the adopted person, a person appointed on their behalf, such as a social worker, or an organisation involved in adoption.

Birth parents have few legal rights, with the Movement for an Adoption Apology Scotland, who secured the concession from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, further campaigning for a change in the law so that “identifying information” on adopted children can be shared with birth parents.

Ms Robieson said: “Now that the Scottish Parliament has apologised to everyone affected by forced adoption I’m trying again to find my sister, and I'm hoping this time the Scottish authorities are listening to traumatised mothers and (former) babies and their families.

"People who were caught up in the secrecy of the decades of forced adoptions want to decide if, when and how to make contact.

"I hope Scotland can now offer love and respect for the adoption-affected families, wherever they are in the world.”

Jeannot Farmer, of MAA Scotland, said the national apology should be accompanied by “appropriate redress”, including government funding for research into long-term trauma caused by forced adoption.

Ms Farmer added: “The first issue is for everyone to recognise the harm that has been caused. When women like Eleanor seek help from GPs, there is no understanding, partly because the common belief is that mothers gave consent to the removal of their baby. The apology from the FM is a first step in changing that narrative.”

“Although the formal apology officially lifts the shame of adoption loss, mothers and first families continue to be discriminated against when it comes to obtaining records and identifying information. They have no legal right to know what happened to the baby who was taken.

"Changing the public narrative about what happened, will hopefully allow the history to be written truthfully, and for lessons to be learned.”

Research continues at the Scottish Government to determine the next stage in its response to forced adoptions.