Will I See My Baby After Giving Them Up for Adoption?

Build a Relationship with Your Child Through Open or Semi-Open Adoption

If you’ve already made the tough decision that adoption is right for you and your child, you probably have a lot of questions.

One of the main concerns of women who choose to place their baby for adoption is:

Will I see my baby after giving them up for adoption?

Yes!

When you choose open adoption or semi-open adoption, you have the opportunity to build a relationship with your child post-placement.

A prospective birth mother who wants to see her baby after giving them up for adoption will complete the following steps:

  1. Tell her adoption specialist she wants an open or semi-open adoption.
  2. Choose how open she wants her adoption to be.
  3. Pick an adoptive family.
  4. Start to build a relationship with the adoptive family.
  5. Continue to build your relationship with the adoptive family and your baby post-placement.

If you already know how open you’d like your adoption to be and are ready to speak to an adoption specialist, you can reach out to us today. But, if you want to understand the difference between open and semi-open adoption, continue reading.

If I Give My Baby Up for Adoption, Do I Still Get to See Her or Him?

The first step to having a relationship with your child post-adoption is to choose an adoption agency to work with and tell your adoption specialist you want an open or semi-open adoption.

Step 1: Tell Your Adoption Specialist You Want an Open or Semi-Open Adoption

Any adoption agency will let you choose open or semi-open adoption. These adoptions are preferred and tend to make everyone’s adoption journey easier.

We recommend working with a national adoption agency because these organizations:

  • Have more employees
  • Have more financial assistance experience and resources
  • Work with a larger pool of adoptive families
  • Have counselors who are often available 24-hours a day

After you choose the adoption agency you want to work with, you’ll start to work with an adoption specialist. Your adoption specialist is your advocate throughout your adoption. You even can call your adoption specialist after your child is placed in their adoptive family.

Your adoption specialist will help you create your adoption plan. Your adoption plan will contain all of your adoption preferences. One of the most important preferences you will detail in your plan is the type of adoption you want. If you want to have a relationship with your child after giving birth, you’ll choose to have an open or semi-open adoption.

Open Adoption

When you choose an open adoption, you and the adoptive family will have each other’s personal information. You also will be in control of choosing the type of contact and the frequency of communication everyone maintains.

Semi-Open Adoption

When you choose semi-open adoption, you and the adoptive family won’t have each other’s personal information. Your contact will be mediated by an adoption professional.

If You Give Your Child Up for Adoption, Can You Still Have Contact With Them?

The next step to staying in contact with your child post-placement is choosing open adoption.

Step 2: Choose How Open You Want Your Adoption to be

Although you can still maintain contact with your child if you choose a semi-open adoption, an adoption professional will medicate all communication. If you prefer to have your child’s direct contact information and want more post-placement freedom, we encourage you to choose open adoption.

All open adoptions are unique and depend on the adoption contract you and the adoptive family create. For example, you and the adoptive family may agree to yearly visits and monthly video chats. Or, you all may arrange to have weekly phone calls and celebrate Christmas together each year.

You control of the type of open adoption you have, which allows you to build the relationship you want with your child. 

Can You Put Your Child Up for Adoption With Visitation?

The third step to staying in contact with your child after you choose adoption is picking the right adoptive family.

Step 3: Pick an Adoptive Family

After you complete your adoption plan, your adoption specialist will use your information to filter adoptive family profiles to send you.

Your specialist will only send you family profiles that meet your search criteria. And if one of your criteria is that you want visitation opportunities with your child, the families your specialist sends you will be open to regular visits.

When Putting a Baby Up for Adoption, What are the Arrangements for Parents to See Their Child?

The fourth step to staying in contact with your child after they go home with the adoptive family is to build a solid relationship with the adoptive family early in the adoption process.

Step 4: Start to Build a Relationship With the Adoptive Family

It’s normal for prospective birth mothers to wonder, “Can I give my baby up for adoption and still keep in contact?” The good news is that when you choose an open adoption, you can build a strong relationship with the adoptive family.

Once you choose the adoptive family you think is best for your child, you’ll have to opportunity to meet the family via a conference call that your adoption specialist mediates.

After the call, you and the adoptive family will have the opportunity to continue to build your relationship before your baby is born. Many prospective birth moms enjoy getting to know their baby’s adoptive family. Getting to know your baby’s hopeful adoptive family can:

  • Put your mind at ease: Getting to know the adoptive family can help you feel confident your child will live with a family you trust.
  • Allow you to share your family’s history: Early visits allow you to tell the hopeful adoptive family all about your family’s history. This can help the family learn things about you that they can share with their child as they grow up.

Can You Give a Child Up for Adoption and Still Remain in Their Life?

The final step to ensuring you remain in your child’s life is maintaining your relationship with your child and the hopeful adoptive family post-placement.

Step 5:  Continue to Build Your Relationship Post-Placement

Since you are in control of creating your post-placement communication plan, you get to detail how you will continue your and your child’s relationship after they go home with the adoptive family.

By choosing open adoption, you’ve already built a solid relationship with the adoptive family, which will allow you to create a life-long relationship with your child.

You can continue staying in touch with your baby and the adoptive family by:

  • Exchanging photos
  • Texting
  • Video chatting
  • In-person visits

Will I See My Baby After “Giving Them Up” for Adoption?

Yes, if you choose open or semi-open adoption.

The key to maintaining a relationship with your child post-placement is choosing open adoption.

When you choose an open adoption, you get to maintain a relationship with your child in the way you want. Your adoption specialist will ensure that you can have the type of adoption you want and pick the hopeful adoptive family that will agree to the kind of relationship you want to build with your child.

You can reach out to us today if you’re ready to talk to an adoption specialist about adoption.

About the Author

Lindsay Arielle has been a proud birth mother since placing her son for adoption in 2011. Her post-placement agreement has always been an open adoption. She loves the time she gets to spend with her son and his parents during visits. Lindsay truly believes that for herself and her family, adoption has been a blessing, and she enjoys writing about spiritual healing for birth mothers.

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