Your Adoption Options for Your Unplanned Pregnancy
If you’re new to the adoption process, you may be surprised at how significant your role as a prospective birth mother is. As the potential birth mother, you have the final say in just about every pregnancy adoption option available to you. And because you, as a prospective birth mother, are the most important part of the adoption process, your adoption specialist will do everything in their power to make sure that your adoption goes the way that you’ve always dreamed of.
Want to learn more? Here are some of the decisions that you’ll need to make when it comes to your adoption options:
When You Can Start Your Adoption
Whenever you are ready to start looking into your options for adoptions, an adoption agency will be waiting and available to help. You can contact an adoption agency early on in your pregnancy, after you’ve returned home from the hospital, and even — in some cases — when your child is a few months old.
Planning your adoption journey early in your pregnancy just means that you will have more choices in terms of choosing an adoptive family and receiving access to financial assistance. But this doesn’t mean that you won’t have the same opportunities if you wait to pursue an adoption plan. Adoption isn’t an overnight decision, and it can take quite a bit of time to come to the right decision for you. That’s completely okay.
No matter how long it takes, working with an adoption agency will always be one of your adoption options for an unplanned pregnancy.
The Adoptive Family
One of the most significant parts of your adoption plan is picking the adoptive family for your baby. Whether you choose to work with an adoption agency or an adoption attorney, you can start thinking about:
- The adoptive family’s makeup: The way our family is made up greatly influences our future. Do you want the adoptive family to be married, providing a two-parent household? Do you want them to grow up with siblings? Questions like these will help determine your child’s future, so they’re important to consider.
- Where the adoptive family lives: Location has a big impact on how one grows up. If you’d like to have frequent in-person visits with your child, it may be a good idea to find a family that lives in your state. If you’re wary about having contact after the adoption with your child and the family, you can find a couple that lives farther away. The choice is entirely up to you.
- Their gender, ethnicity, and more: Besides their makeup and location, who the adoptive family are as people will perhaps have the biggest impact on your child’s future. Many families will have no problem adopting a newborn that comes from a different background than them and will even pursue a transracial adoption if it’s offered to them. If you have a preference on these adoptive family demographics, don’t be afraid to let your adoption specialist know.
If you don’t plan on working with an agency, you might be thinking about placing your baby for adoption with a friend or a family member. This is referred to as a kinship adoption, and it can be a great option if you already have a close relationship with your family member. But, this path does come with some drawbacks, just like many different options for putting a baby up for adoption. It’s important to determine what you want out of a kinship adoption if you wish to pursue it.
The Hospital Stay
Another of your adoption options is to create a hospital plan. This will be a little bit different than your typical hospital plan, as this may be the first time that you meet the adoptive family in person. With your adoption hospital plan, you’ll want to think about:
- If the adoptive family can be in the room with you during the delivery
- How many members of your support system will join you at the hospital
- If you want to take pictures with the adoptive family
- And so much more
Your adoption professional will always work with you to create the hospital plan you desire for your adoption experience.
Post-Placement Contact
It’s not uncommon to feel anxious when thinking about what life will look like with your child after the adoption. As the prospective birth mother, you get to decide if you would prefer an open, semi-open or closed adoption. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages, so it’s important to think about all of your adoption options before deciding on one.
Adoption is a complex process. Not only are you under physical stress, but you may also have difficulty meeting your emotional needs at the same time. If you’d like to discuss your options on giving a baby up for adoption with an adoption specialist, here are some adoption agencies you can reach out to at any time: