Every time the phone rang, Katie McHugh felt nervous. She had started working at The Cradle of Evanston, answering calls from pregnant women interested in putting their children up for adoption.
Picking up the phone, the SESP senior would deliver her scripted greeting: “Hello. The Cradle. This is Katie.” Then she would deal with her nerves.
“You don’t know what they’re going to say,” she said. “It could be a rape case, or she could be completely in control of her feelings.”
McHugh interned at The Cradle for her Northwestern practicum this past summer and worked there part-time Fall Quarter, both times as an intake coordinator. The Cradle, 2049 Ridge Ave., is one of the oldest adoption agencies in the country, starting out of Evanston Hospital in 1923.
For McHugh, working at The Cradle continues to remind her of how unwanted pregnancy can happen to any woman at any age. A self-described mother-type regarding birth control, she said she thinks it is important to realize that no birth control method is foolproof; women need to be aware of their bodies.
The organization is on the corner of Simpson Street and Ridge Avenue. While McHugh heard of The Cradle before her internship, she said working there opened her eyes to the issue of unplanned pregnancy and adoption.
With time, McHugh said, she became comfortable with her position. The questions she asked women contemplating adoption became easier to ask. She said she has heard pretty much all of the possible answers to them.
“Are you pregnant or has the baby already been born?” McHugh asks. “Do you have any other children? Is the father aware? Do you have housing, food and clothing?”
The Cradle has answers for each of these questions, said Jennifer Montgomery, director of Regulatory Compliance and Special Projects. Montgomery emphasized that homes are found even for infants with special needs. There is counseling available for the birth mother and the birth father, if he chooses to be involved in the process. If the woman calling has no place to stay or no access to proper prenatal care, The Cradle can help with that, too.
While The Cradle provides extensive counseling for the birth mother, the building makes it is clear that the babies’ lives are its focus.
Photos cover the walls of the old stone building. On the stairway up to the nursery, where infants await finalization of their adoptions, dozens of black-and-white photographed faces gaze out happily at passers-by. “Families always send us pictures of their adopted children growing up,” Montgomery said.
On the main floor there are not only pictures of the children. There are portraits of whole families, including those of Bob Hope and former Chicago Bears player Gale Sayers, both of whom entrusted their adoption searches to The Cradle. Sayers also donated money to build a wing specifically devoted to adoptions involving black babies.
Even though these photos are on display in the building, The Cradle prides itself on its strict anonymity policy. Besides these celebrities who chose to promote The Cradle, the women who opt to use the agency’s services are guaranteed anonymity.
The importance of family is clear not only in aesthetics, but also in policy: The Cradle was one of the first adoption agencies to advocate open adoptions in which the birth mother is still involved in the life of the child, acting as a “godmother.”
“The vast majority choose openness once they find out about it,” Montgomery said.
When she started her job, McHugh said she would pause when someone called who was the same age as her.
“It’s one of those epiphany moments,” said McHugh, who just turned 22. “That could be me.”
According to Montgomery, The Cradle assists girls as young as 13 or 14 and women as old as 40 who wish to put children up for adoption. The average age is between 21 and 23.
“It’s a very difficult, very selfless decision,” Montgomery said.
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