Honoring Birth Mothers During National Adoption Month in Wisconsin
National Adoption Month brings attention to adoption stories, families, and children. It is also a time to recognize birth mothers and birth parents whose love and decisions made those stories possible. Honoring birth mothers means acknowledging the full reality of adoption, including strength, loss, and enduring connection. Why honoring birth mothers matters Birth mothers are […]
Post Placement Support for Birth Parents in Wisconsin
After placement, many birth parents tell us that the world expects them to be okay quickly. In reality, the weeks and months that follow adoption can bring a wide range of emotions. Post placement support exists because adoption is not just a moment. It is a life experience, and birth parents deserve care long after […]
The Psychological Effects of Adoption on Birth Parents
Adoption is a complex process with feelings that can be unique situationally and some that are universal to the experience. Birth parents will feel any combination of feelings, but like any loss, they will likely go through not only the stages of grief, but also, suffer from other effects of trauma that may not […]
Placing My Child for Adoption: An Act of Love and Hope
If you are considering placing your baby or child for adoption, it is important that you start off by speaking to a social worker, adoption agency, or other adoption professional. It is important that you know your rights as a birth mother or birth father and that as a birth parent, you are making the […]
When your Family Doesn’t Support Your Adoption Plan
When we talk about stigmas surrounding adoption, we tend to think of the past, when people didn’t share that they had adopted and all adoptions were closed. Though this seems like this was how things were handled long ago, it wasn’t in our too distant past that these things happened. Also, unfortunately, stigmas surrounding […]
How to Navigate Open Adoption
As a birth parent who is already navigating creating an adoption plan, it can be difficult to know what type of openness you see occurring. This is an important decision and there are adoption professionals willing to help you think this through. What is an open adoption? There are three levels of openness […]
Adoption & Trauma
Discussions of adoption often center on hope, joy, and building families. Though these things are a part of adoption, not all aspects of adoption are celebratory or positive experiences. For birth parents, adoptees, and even adoptive parents, there can be a level of trauma. For many adoptees in particular, this is something that […]
Why Do Birth Parents Choose Adoption?
I have done a lot of research about adoption and have had the privilege of speaking to many birth mothers. It is so important to me to learn from others’ lived experiences. Through these conversations, I’ve learned that no birth mother chooses to make an adoption plan for the same reason. In fact, there […]
As A Birthparent…
When I talk to individuals about adoption, one of the first things that people ask is about birth parents changing their minds after making an adoption plan. In some instances, birth parents that have chosen adoptive parents, do decide to parent–as is their right. For those seeking to adopt a child, this can be […]
Birth Father Rights
Nearly 135,000 adoptions take place in the United States each year. Of those adoptions, each situation is entirely different from the other. Each state has its own laws and procedures when it comes to adoption. Legally, one of the most important things in the process is understanding the rights of birth parents and parental […]