Adele, 69, who was sent to the Marianvale home in Newry, County Down, as a teenager after becoming pregnant, tells BBC News NI that a light must finally be shone on what happened to thousands of women in Northern Ireland.
The human rights organisation Amnesty International says there were more than a dozen mother-and-baby homes and Magdalene Laundry-type institutions in Northern Ireland, with the last one closing its doors as recently as 1990.
Some former residents of the homes have long been calling for a public inquiry.
Stormont-commissioned research on such homes has been compiled by academics and the report is expected to be published on Tuesday.
A investigation into similar institutions in the Republic of Ireland prompted an apology from the government.