Should I adopt a newborn baby?
Who can help me adopt a newborn?
What are the important facts I need to consider for newborn adoption?
These and many other questions can feel like a barrier standing between your family and the adoption process. We’re going to break through that barrier by answering the most common and important questions in our guide to adopting a newborn.
If you’re a prospective birth mother looking for information on placing a newborn for adoption, you can complete this free online form to connect with an experienced adoption professional today.
We’re ready to help you better understand the adoption process and how you can find the perfect adoptive family for your newborn.
What Is Newborn Adoption?
There are several terms that overlap when we are talking about adopting a newborn. You will likely run across the phrases “private adoption,” “domestic adoption” and “infant adoption.” Are these the same thing? Generally speaking, yes. These phrases are used interchangeably in most situations.
However, newborn adoption does refer to something specific: When parents adopt a baby under 6 months old from the U.S. Even more specific than that, the vast majority of newborn adoptions occur at the hospital shortly following birth.
How Is that Different from Other Types of Adoption?
Adopting a newborn baby is not the only option for hopeful parents. There are several types of adoption, and choosing the one that fits your situation best is one of the big decisions a family makes in the adoption process.
Foster care adoption is the process of being placed with a child by the state and then finalizing the adoption of that child into your family. Foster care adoption is appealing to many hopeful parents. However, if you want to adopt a newborn baby, this probably isn’t the right route for you. Most children in foster care who are waiting to be adopted are older. Adoption of an older child is beautiful, but it does come with unique challenges that not all parents are ready to face.
There’s also international adoption for future parents to consider. Adoptions from foreign countries have been declining amongst U.S. families since 2004. The reasons are many, including increased complexity, international politics and cost. While it is possible, it’s very difficult to adopt a newborn from a different country.
Both foster care and international adoption can be beautiful ways to start or grow a family. It all depends on your situation and what you feel you are prepared for. Many families considering adoption feel that they are most prepared for and excited about newborn adoption. If you feel that way, it’s perfectly okay, and you can pursue a domestic infant adoption of a newborn baby.
How Do I Adopt a Newborn Baby?
Each newborn adoption process is unique, because each family is unique. With that said, there are some big steps that everyone has to take.
First things first: you don’t adopt a newborn baby on your own. You do it with the help of an adoption agency. There are several types of agencies that help families adopting newborns, and American Adoptions is one of them. We are a fully-licensed, full-service national adoption agency. We have helped thousands of families come together, and most of the adoptions we complete are newborn adoptions.
As a national adoption agency, we search for the best adoption opportunity for you across the country. Because of this, we offer families shorter wait times. We are also a full-service agency, which means we are equipped with the tools to provide for you at every step of the adoption process. Some agencies, on the other hand, can only meet the requirements of a few steps.
When you are adopting a newborn, you’ll work with American Adoptions to create a family profile that is shown to prospective birth mothers. When the right prospective birth mother sees your profile, she’ll select you to adopt her baby. Thanks to the increasing prominence of open adoption, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to speak with the birth mother before and after birth.
Then, when the time comes, you will get an amazing call: it’s time to go to the hospital. Most families who are adopting newborn babies meet their baby very shortly after birth. After being placed with your baby, there will be a couple more steps to finalize the adoption.
This is only a brief overview. You can view more resources about how to adopt a newborn baby to get a more in-depth picture of the process.
