Gone are the days of keeping an adoptive child’s identity a guarded secret. Today, adoptive families are recognizing the importance of maintaining contact with the child’s birth parents. Open adoption can enrich the adoptee’s life in many ways, but such transparency can benefit you, too.
Although open adoption has advantages, not everyone is comfortable with this arrangement. Understanding what it can offer may help you make the right choice.
Benefits of open adoption to adoptive parents
Open adoption gives you the unique opportunity to truly get to know the child and their story. By building a connection with their biological mother or birth family, you can better understand the child’s cultural background and health history. This may come in handy as the child grows up and starts to ask questions or if any changes in their health occur.
Open adoption can promote open communication, allowing the child a smoother transition into your family.
Benefits of open adoption to birth parents
Birth parents have a say in selecting the adoptive family for their child. Open adoption can reassure them that their child is in good hands, thus making it less difficult to give the child up. Knowing they can receive constant updates and stay in touch may grant them peace of mind.
If both parties are amenable, the birth parents may even remain involved in the child’s life, relieving them of their grief after placement takes place.
Benefits of open adoption to the child
Sometimes, adoptees struggle to adjust to their new family because they feel incomplete and lost. Not knowing where they came from and the reasons behind their adoption may cause feelings of abandonment and identity crisis to develop.
Open adoption helps dispel such yearning and confusion and may even allow the child to empathize with their birth parents. Moreover, since birth mothers often keep their adopted children in their hearts, they can provide the child with an additional support system.
If you see the benefits of open adoption but have difficulty embracing it, go back to what the child might need. Taking this route has many potential benefits, but boundary issues and other problems may also arise. As time goes on, you or the birth parents may wish for less contact.
There is a lot to consider when you maintain an open line of contact with a biological family. To help you make an informed decision, it may help to talk to an adoption attorney in Texas about your concerns.
