“Something that really bothers me is the public’s perception of birthmothers.
We’re not poverty-stricken, uneducated morons. We’re smart, courageous women who
made a selfless choice to give our children something we could not provide at
the time. We each have our own unique set of not-so-pretty circumstances that
played a role in our decisions to place. And our decisions are not always based
solely on finances. Society tells us: If you have the finances to raise a
child, but you decide to place, then you must be really selfish. Yes,
finances are an important factor in deciding whether or not to place a child for
adoption because let’s face it… you have to be able to support yourself and
another human being, but there is so much more to it than that. So much
more. There are plenty of people who have more than enough money, but may not be
capable of parenting. I can tell you that at 18, I was not financially or
emotionally capable of being responsible for the wellbeing of not just myself,
but another human being. An incredibly precious one at that. And that’s the
bottom line. “
The previous quote is from a courageous young woman who placed her child for adoption several years ago. More can be found on her site at Amstel Life