If you want to adopt a child, you need to understand the various options that you have before proceeding. What is open adoption? What is closed adoption? What are the benefits of an open adoption, and what should you count as its downsides? Read on to learn all this.
Are you expecting a baby within the next few months but not mentally ready to become a parent? If yes, then adoption is a good option for your child.
Ten years ago, closed adoption was quite common in the United States, where the birth parents will not contact the adoptive family and their child. But now, 60 to 70 percent of domestic adoptions in the U.S. are open adoptions. Open adoption is a type of adoption where you can have touch with your birth child for years.
The article discusses more about open adoption. So, you can keep reading the article for more information.
What Is Open Adoption?
Adoption is a hard decision for a birth family. But if you are not mentally ready to become a parent, then giving your child for adoption is a way for birth mothers to give your child a better and wonderful life.
He will get all the primary needs that he deserves. You need to thoroughly research different types of adoption like open adoption, close adoption, and semi adoption.
Let’s talk about open adoption. Open adoption is a type of adoption in which you can have contact with the child and the adoptive family for the benefit of your child.
The communication in open adoption means you can either do person visits or send letters or emails and have phone calls with your child. The child even knows that he is adopted and can have contact with you for years.
The open adoption occurs either directly by contacting any relatives, friends, or family members or through any adoption agency. The level of openness is defined first by you and the agency and then by the adoptive parent. It could be a fully open or semi-open adoption, depending on the adoption plan that is decided between you and the adoptive family.
Some adoptive parents like to celebrate holidays or any critical events with the child’s biological parents, but others may restrict only to letters and emails.
You might also like to read: Adopting Vs. Having Your Own Child – Pros And Cons
Benefits Of Open Adoption
#1. The Child Will Have a Wider Family Circle.
Your child will always have a wide family circle to support and love him.
#2. Your child Doesn’t have To Think About His Adoption Story
Most adoptees usually think about their adoption story or how they are adopted, which can hurt emotionally. Open adoption allows your child to keep in contact with you. So his adoption story will not be a mystery.
Your child can answer questions like who am I? Or where have I come from? He doesn’t have to imagine his parents in a fantasy world. So, in short, open adoption helps your child know much about their personal history.
#3.Allows You To Maintain Relationship With Your Child
Open adoption allows you to maintain a relationship with your child till he gets older.
#4.Medical Information
Most of the adoptees don’t know knowledge regarding medical information about their families. Open adoption allows the adoptive family to know about the previous medical history and any new medical information in the child’s family.
#5. Reduces Fear And Anxiety
Open adoption enables you to communicate with the adoptee, which reduces your fear and anxiety about the child’s well-being.
#6.Reduces Your Guilt
Open adoption reduces your guilt for putting a child into adoption when you can regularly communicate with the child and his adoptive parents.
Cons Of Open Adoption
#1. Unfeasible Expectations
unrealistic expectations can be a severe problem in open adoption. Sometimes you expect everything perfect from the adoptive family while your child’s adoptive parents want you to be quiet and not interfere in your child’s upbringing. These expectations hamper the relationship between you and your adoptive parents.
#2. Adoptive Parents Want The Child To Keep Less Contact With You.
The adoptive parents may want the child to have less contact with you than outlined in the agreement.
#3.Conflicting Values
Your perspective in seeing various things in life may differ from the adoptive parents of your child’s perspective. The conflicting values can hamper your relationship with the adoptive parents.
You might also like to read: What Questions Are Asked In A Home Study For Adoption?
What Is The Difference Between Open And Close Adoption?
| Open Adoption | Close Adoption | |
| Adoptive Parents | The adoptive parents can have a relationship with the child’s biological parents.The adoptive parents can know the medical history of the child’s family before and after adoption.The adoptive parents don’t have to wait for a too long time for a mother who wants open adoption | The adoptive parents don’t have any information regarding the child’s birth parents.The adoptive parents cannot have any updated medical information.The adoptive parents may have to wait for a long time to find a mother who wants close adoption. |
| Birth Parents | The birth parents can know about the family who will adopt their child.The birth parents can maintain a relationship with the child and may watch him growing up.Open adoption reduces the fear and anxiety of birth parents and ensures that their child is safe and secure. | The birth parents have no information about the family who will adopt their child.The birth parents cannot maintain a relationship with them. They even cannot watch their child growing up.When birth parents choose close adoption, then there is always fear and anxiety because they are unsure about their child’s safety and security. |
| Adoptees | The adoptees can know their birth parents through phone calls, and messages The adoptees don’t have to struggle for searching questions regarding who they are or where they have come from. | The adoptees may have little or don’t have any knowledge about their birth family.The adoptees often struggle to know why their birth parents left them, who they are, and where they came from. |
Working Of Open Adoption
The working of open adoption depends on the people who are involved in the relationship.
The Mother Of The Child Decides How to Keep Contact With The Adoptive Parents
In today’s open adoption, the child’s mother decides what kind of adoption relationships she wants to keep. She decides how much to contact the adoptive parents before and after adoption.
She can ask the adoptive parents have regular contact with the child or contacts only through phone calls, video calls, pictures within the regular interval, and other things basis her comfort level.
Keeping contact with the child differs from one mother to another. The majority of mothers prefer to choose adoptive parents with whom they can maintain a personal relationship before and after the adoption process.
But some birth mothers will want to receive a picture or do a phone call every six months or want to keep minimal contact with the adoptive parents and child.
The Mother Of The Child Selects The Adoptive Family
Once the child’s mother decides the criteria of the adoptive parents and how to keep in contact with them after adoption, the adoption professional will try to look for such families. The mother will review the profile of many families and select the one that suits her the best.
Both The Parties Try To Know Each Other
The relationship between the birth parents and adoptive parents starts even before the child’s birth. However, the duration and way of communication may differ from one open adoption to other.
Most of the time, the specialists will do conference calls so that both mother and her selected adoptive parents can know each other better.
You might also like to read: Can You Adopt With A Criminal Record?
The Mother And Her Selected Adoptive Parents Meet In Hospital
The expected mother who works with the American adoption process first creates a hospital plan that includes various things like the type of room she wants during hospital delivery. She also needs to know how much time she wants the selected adoptive to spend with her and others in the room. The plan will be informed to the selected adoptive parents so that they can get ready for the upcoming day.
In most cases, the selected adoptive parents meet the mother for the first time. It is pretty emotional for both parties.
The Biological Parent And The Adoptive Continue Relationship Even After Adoption
According to the agreement, the biological parent continues to have contact with the child even after adoption. Your post-adoption agreement may include communication through letters, emails, phone calls, video calls, or regular person visits to contact the child.
Frequently Answered Questions
#1. What type of adoption is most common?
Today most biological parents are opting for open adoptions. Only 5 percent of modern adoptions are close adoptions.
#2. What is the point of open adoption?
Open adoption gives peace of mind to biological parents that their child will have information regarding his family history and the background from where he has come from. The best thing is that the biological parent can maintain a relationship with their child for many years.
#3. How many U.S. adoptions are open?
According to the Adoption network, almost 60 to 70 percent of child adoptions are open adoptions.
A Few Final Words
The benefits of open adoption are not only for adoptive families but for everyone involved in the relationship. The adoptee can have contact with his birth parents. So he can know about his background and family history. The mother can feel relaxed by contacting the child via messages, phone, video call, or visiting.
Thank you for reading this article. We hope we have covered everything related to open adoption in this article.