Semi-Open Adoption [Your Complete Guide]
You know that adoption is the right path for you, but you’re not quite sure which type of adoption you want to pursue. You enjoy the privacy of closed adoption, but you want to maintain a relationship with your child as you would in open adoption.
The good news is that there is a nice middle ground between open and closed adoption: semi-open adoption.
If you want to get free adoption information now, then you can contact us online whenever you’re ready. But, we have put together this in-depth guide that explains everything that you need to know about semi-open adoption.
What Is a Semi-Open Adoption? [How It Works]
Private semi-open adoption is when an adoption professional mediates all contact between the birth parents and the adoptive family. This option is for people who want to keep their identifying information private but still want some sort of communication in adoption.
As you learn all about semi-open adoption, you may be wondering how communication works in this type of adoption. Here are several examples of types of contact that are common in semi-open adoption:
- Zoom or Skype with your adoption professional
- Emails through your adoption agency
- In-person visits with a social worker
- Pictures through your adoption agency
- Handwritten letters through your adoption agency
Now that you know what semi-open adoption is, you might be wondering how it even works. That’s why we’re here to explain what you can expect from the general process as a prospective birth parent.
Below, we have outlined what your journey would look like if you pursued this type of adoption.
Step 1: Find an Adoption Agency and Family for Your Private Semi-Open Adoption
Your first step for completing your semi-open adoption will be finding a reputable adoption professional. You’ll want to find a trusted adoption agency that has plenty of experience with semi-open adoptions. Once you find a professional that seems like a great fit, reach out to them to move things forward.
Once you connect with an adoption professional, they can help you find the right adoptive family for your baby. Alongside your professional, you’ll browse profiles of hopeful adoptive families, which provide plenty of details on what life with these families would be like. When you find a profile that stands out to you, let your adoption professional know, and they can work on the next steps.
Step 2: Pre-Placement Contact in Semi-Open Adoption vs. Open Adoption
If you’re curious about the difference between an open adoption and a semi-open adoption, then one of those key differences is pre-placement contact.
Another term for semi-open adoption is “mediated adoption,” meaning that your adoption professional passes all contact between you and the hopeful adoptive family back and forth. The main reason that people choose private semi-open adoption is to preserve identifying information, and that’s why the adoption professional is the mediator.
For instance, here are a few measures that your adoption professional may take to ensure that everyone’s identifying information is kept private:
- Many adoption professionals arrange a Zoom or Skype call for you to speak with the hopeful adoptive parents. It’s normal to feel nervous about meeting the adoptive family, so your adoption professional can break the ice with some questions and dispel any lingering tension.
- For semi-open adoption, it’s common for your professional to arrange a separate email address that the adoptive parents may use to contact you. They will use this email address only for communicating with you, and this guarantees that both parties’ identifying information remains private. It’s another difference between an open adoption and a semi-open adoption.
- After placement occurs, you will receive regular updates about your child from the adoptive family. In an open adoption, you would receive these updates directly. But, in a semi-open adoption, the adoptive family will send these updates to your adoption professional, who will then relay them to you. For the most part, these updates arrive in the form of letters, pictures or handwritten letters.
We should also mention that it’s common for prospective birth parents to meet with the hopeful adoptive family for an in-person, pre-placement visit. While you all meet, you can still withhold identifying information, and your adoption professional can be there for this in-person visit if that’s what you would prefer. Your adoption professional will also help you prepare for this meeting.
Whether or not you have a meeting like this is totally up to you. You get to choose from level of openness.
Step 3: Your Hospital Stay in a Semi-Open Adoption
The final step of your semi-open adoption process is your hospital stay. You’ll create a hospital plan alongside your adoption professional, and this plan includes where you’d like to give birth and who you want to be in the hospital room to support you.
When it comes to private semi-open adoption, this hospital plan also details how much contact you would like with the adoptive parents. If you’d like, then your adoption professional can arrange for them to have their own room at the hospital. Or, if you want, then they can be in the hospital room with you. This choice is ultimately up to you and no one else.
Step 4: Post-Placement Contact in Semi-Open Adoption vs. Open Adoption
As we mentioned earlier, the adoptive family will send updates about your child to your adoption professional. Then, your professional will send all these updates your way. This is so that everyone’s identifying information stays private to respect your semi-open adoption wishes. This stage of your adoption journey is known as post-placement contact.
A significant difference between an open adoption and a semi-open adoption is that, in open adoption, you will receive these updates directly. It’s worth mentioning, though, that you can receive direct updates while still pursuing semi-open adoption if that’s what you wish.
Because you are the prospective birth parent, you get to call all the shots while your adoption professional does all the heavy lifting for you. You are in 100% control of your adoption plan from the beginning to the end.
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If you have any more questions about semi-open adoption, then you can fill out our online contact form to get more adoption information now. We would be happy to help you in any way that we can.