An unexpected pregnancy can be a surprising and shocking development in your life. Deciding what to do about the pregnancy can be stressful. If your life circumstances make it hard for you to raise a child, then you will have serious choices to make. Ending the pregnancy is an option. However, if you are not inclined to go that route, then you should consider putting the baby up for adoption.
These days, women have more control over the adoption process. You need not give your baby up to a foster care agency and then vanish from its life forever. You can instead participate in a private adoption.
In a private adoption plan, you get to choose the family who will take in and raise your child. It is one of the most transparent and compassionate ways of placing a child for adoption because it involves you, the birth mom, in the entire process.
The Difference Between a Birth Mother and Expectant Mother
In a private adoption plan, you can meet the adoptive parents before the child is born. At that point, you are the expectant mother. You do not become the birth mom until you have actually placed your child in the arms of another person. These terms are not interchangeable. Once you enter the adoption process, you should think of yourself and refer to yourself as the expectant mother. It is necessary to do so based on the nature of private adoptions.
Even if you have chosen the family you want to adopt your child, you still have rights until you have given birth and signed the consent for adoption. You should use your time as an expectant mother to have an open and frank conversation about the kind of adoption arrangement you want.
The Choice to Stay in Your Child’s Life
Placing a child for adoption can be a painful and difficult process. You may believe that the best thing you can do is choose a loving, caring, compassionate, and financially stable family for your child and then break off contact. This is an option, and it is called a closed adoption.
However, if you cannot bear the thought of not having any contact whatsoever with your child, if it is only the material condition and challenging circumstances of your life that prevent you from raising your child, then you may want an open or semi-open adoption. This is an informal arrangement in which you are allowed to have a role in your child’s life. Technically, the adoptive parents can close an open adoption without justification if they choose, but this rarely happens. And the best way to guarantee that you will remain in your child’s life after they are born is to select adoptive parents who also want an open or semi-open adoption.
In most instances, the adoptive parents will pay all medical bills related to your pregnancy. As an expectant mother, you may also receive financial help to pay for rent, utilities, food, maternity clothing, and transportation.
Contact our adoption lawyer
Gulf Coast Adoptions can provide legal resources for birth mothers and expectant mothers. If you are considering adoption for your baby, please fill out our contact form, or call us today at 850-999-7977.