Steps to Take when Creating an Adoption Plan as a Birth Mother in Kansas
When dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, you might feel that your life is spinning out of your control. As a step toward getting back on your feet, you decide to pursue adoption to ensure a better life for you and the baby you carry. Then, you create an adoption plan on your terms that accommodates your specific needs, so that you can have some peace of mind after placement. When you take control over your adoption plan, you are on the path to taking back control over your life.
At Adoption Choices of Kansas, we want you to be able to create the best adoption plan you can to ensure the successful placement of your baby. By providing these steps to take when creating an adoption plan, we hope to put you on the path that will make the rest of your adoption journey go more smoothly.
- Reach Out to an Adoption Professional
When you decide to pursue adoption, you can contact any of the adoption professionals at Adoption Choices of Kansas for guidance on how to proceed in creating your adoption plan. Our staff is dedicated to making you feel supported and heard from the very beginning. We will immediately start to counsel you on the options you have as you figure out how you want to approach your adoption plan. We are available whenever you need us, whether it’s day or night, since we care about addressing your needs as they come up.
At this stage, you will also be introduced to our legal professionals who will inform you of your rights as a birth mother. When you understand your rights and how much control you have over the adoption process, it will be easier for you to put together an adoption plan that’s right for you and your birth child. Such knowledge frees you from any hesitation you might have when crafting certain components of your adoption.
- Prepare to Select an Adoptive Family
The next step after your initial consultation and introduction to the adoption process is planning for the type of adoptive family you want to raise your child. There are so many factors to consider when envisioning the type of adoptive family who will be the right fit. What kind of values do they hold? What is their parenting style? Is the family small or large? What kind of community do they live in? How financially stable are they? What kind of lifestyle choices do they make? Not only should you be determining what qualities are important to you, but also how much weight you put on these qualities. This can help you distinguish your must-haves in an adoptive family from nice-to-haves.
As you develop a clearer picture of the kind of adoptive family you want, your adoption caseworker will work closely with you to understand what you are looking for so we can turn your plan into reality. He or she will provide you with adoptive parent profiles for you to review. These profiles serve as an introduction to a prospective adoptive family. They contain information on why this prospective family is choosing adoption, as well as an overview of their background and what their daily lives are like. Your adoption caseworker can provide you with as many of these profiles as you want until you find an adoptive family who best matches your criteria.
- Decide What Kind of Adoption You Want
Once you find an adoptive family, it might be easier for you to envision the role you want to play in the child’s life after placement. The kind of presence you want to have in your birth child’s life will help you determine what type of adoption to pursue. There are three types of adoption you can choose from: open adoption, semi-open adoption, and closed adoption.
If you want to build a relationship with the adoptive family and have opportunities to reunite with your child, open adoption is a great choice for you. This is the most common type of adoption, and it allows you to see your child from time to time as well as get updates on them in the form of emails, phone calls, pictures, or video chats. If you wish to play a less active role in the child’s life, but you still wish to be able to contact the adoptive family and get an occasional update from them, you might want to consider a semi-open adoption.
If you know you want to cut off all contact between you and the adoptive family, and you have no intention of reuniting with your birth child, closed adoption is likely the best option for you. Perhaps you simply want to completely move on from the pain of letting go of the child, or maybe you have privacy and safety concerns for you or the child. In any case, you have the final say in the type of adoption you would like to pursue which can make you more confident in your choice.
- Plan for Your Hospital Stay
Childbirth is stressful under any circumstance, and introducing adoption into the process can add another layer of complexity to the experience. However, if you carefully prepare for your hospital stay, your experience will go much more smoothly. As part of your adoption plan, there are several major things you will need to plan for. These include, but are not limited to: how you will get to and from the hospital, what pain management techniques you want, whether you have special medical needs to be accommodated, and who you want present in the delivery room. You can also determine whether you want pictures or videos to be taken, how much time you want to spend with the baby and his or her adoptive family, if you want to walk the baby out of the hospital, and whether you want to bring home mementos of the baby you just placed for adoption.
Creating an Adoption Plan as a Birth Mother in Kansas
Understanding what steps to take when creating an adoption plan and taking control over this process can allow you to move through your adoption journey with confidence. The more confident you are about the adoption plan you create, the more confident you will be in your choice to pursue adoption. This can put you in a better position to initiate your healing process so you can move on with your life.
If you are interested in creating an adoption plan, but you aren’t sure where to start or are unfamiliar with the process, Adoption Choices of Kansas can help you create an adoption plan that’s the right fit for you and your birth child.
Adoption Choices of Kansas serves birth parents statewide and beyond, please call us or text us to learn more!
Call Us 877-903-4488 or Text Us 316-209-2071
Meet the Author: Mary DeStefano is an Ohio native currently living in northern Virginia and works in the litigation consulting industry where she has experience in antitrust, product liability, and mass torts matters. She holds a B.A. in Economics (‘15) and an M.A. in Applied Economics (‘16) from the University of Cincinnati.
Mary finds great meaning in wielding the written word to develop impactful narratives and to help people stay informed. In her spare time, Mary can be found beachcombing and going on other adventures with her dog along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. She also has an affinity for antiquing and loves a good 80’s movie marathon.
