Adoption can be the right option for you and your baby, plus it can bring joy and happiness to other people. While it is difficult to make this decision, remember that there are professionals who offer legal and emotional support during each step.
Steps
Step 1. Listen to your heart
Finding out that you are pregnant can trigger a flood of emotions. You have several options, also depending on where you are, your beliefs and your personal situation. Giving your baby up for adoption can be a great decision.
Step 2. Contact a foundation or organization that deals with this type of practice as soon as you feel that adoption is the right choice for you
Your doctor can recommend the right contact for you. You will be helped to find suitable adoptive parents and prepare the documents. They will also explain the legal implications to you.
- Some organizations may specify which parents your child will go to, such as a family of the same religion as you.
- Don't feel obligated to give your child up for adoption, the last word is up to you. If you feel pressured, it means that you have not approached the right interlocutors.
Step 3. You can contact a third party to arrange for independent adoption
In this case there are no organizations involved, the adoptive parents will pay the legal, medical and any other expenses. (Note: check carefully because the laws change from state to state).
Step 4. Open or closed adoption?
You can arrange for an open adoption, which involves staying in touch with both the child and the adoptive parents after birth. It is an increasingly popular choice. However, the traditional option is still valid, which does not foresee any future contact with the child and parents.
Step 5. Adoption by a family member?
Sometimes the child is adopted by another family member: a grandfather, sister, cousin, uncle, or other family member. In some cultures, this option is much more accepted than giving up a child to strangers for adoption.
Step 6. Know what rights you have
The ideal would be that, whatever your choice, you make it in due time and that there are no complications. However, you may change your mind at the time of delivery. You must know your rights: until when can you change your mind? What if you no longer want to give the baby up for adoption? What happens if you do? What if you don't want to meet your biological child once they grow up? Knowing your possibilities can help you make an informed choice.
Step 7. Be aware of the emotional impact
Adoption produces different emotions in everyone involved. The appropriate interlocutors will give you advice on how to deal with these feelings. It is possible that you experience this moment of your life with great intensity, in a positive and negative way. You will feel the need to cry over the loss of contact with your biological child, who has been a part of you for 9 months, but remember: you are giving a gift to another family that will give them joy and hope.
Advice
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Don't abandon your baby.
There are laws that allow you to take the child to a hospital, a police station or another place dedicated to emergencies and it is legal, so there will be no legal repercussions. Your child will soon find a great home.
- A couple is not necessarily better than a single parent family.
- Contact an attorney to facilitate the process (in many places it is mandatory). This will allow you to secure your legal rights and help you make the best decision during the adoption process.
- It would be best if you trusted the new parents and knew them enough to feel good about leaving your baby with them.
- If you have even the slightest doubt, avoid choosing that specific family.
- Before choosing adoptive parents for your child, make sure you have an adequate list of people available to adopt.
