Why foster family for 6 weeks after birth?

Thank you for replying, it seems that there could be a number of reasons that this occured and is completely normal. It's such a puzzle! Lol, got to keep trying though :) Take Care, JD

JD, that's just the way adoptions were handled back in the 1970's. When I delivered my son, the agency's social worker told me that the faster I signed the relinquishment papers, the quicker my baby would be moved to his permanent home. Consequently, I signed the surrender documents when he was four days old, thinking that he would only be in the temporary foster home for a week at the most. (That's what the social worker told me.) There were actually foster parents back then who specialized in taking care of newborns who were being placed for adoption.I discovered 18 years later that he had spent one full month in foster care, and I was outraged. It breaks my heart to think of my tiny baby boy not bonding with his new parents for that time period. If I had had any idea that the agency was going to wait that long, I never would have signed the papers as quickly as I did. I would have waited until I was informed that they had "matched" him with his new set of parents and visited him in the interim.Back then, there were no pre-birth matches between expectant mothers and adoptive families. The agencies didn't even begin the matching process until the relinquishment papers were signed. (I mistakenly assumed that the matching process began when I gave reams of information and background on myself, his father, and our families to the caseworker.)What Dickons says is very true. The agencies often kept newborns in foster homes to ensure that they were healthy. If they had any serious medical problems, they were kept in the foster-care system, which is the reason I informed the agency before my son was born that if he had any health problems, I wouldn't be signing the relinquishment papers. The last thing in the world I would have ever consented to was having my baby grow up in a foster home...

Thank you. You are on this site so I imagine that you think about your son. I don't really see that 'she', my birthmom is yet looking for me so I'm not sure if she ever will. Well....hard question....do you think she still thinks about me ever? Idk, that might make it help, if that makes sense. I know that there has to be so many feelings involved when giving up a child that I don't understand and every situation is different, so it may just be to hard for her to want contact with me. I am understanding and don't expect much, but it would mend my heart greatly just to know she thinks of me. :) It would really heal something that is missing, its hard to explain. I guess I am still dealing with my feelings. Thank you so much. You helped a lot, seriously. Take care. Joan

I have yet to meet a natural mother who does not think of her child. Pretty much every one I have known, either online or IRL, thinks about her child, and for many, those thoughts occur every single day. I often wonder why so many people think we forget about our children. I don't even know how that would be possible.

I met my birthmother this year. She told me she hadn't looked because she thought if I hadn't been told about my being adopted or about her that it would somehow ruin my life. I was in foster care for a week or so while papers were being signed. She also told me upon meeting her that there wasn't a day that went by that she didn't think about me. Your mom thinks about you too, every day. I am sure of it.

I was adopted when i was 2 1/2 and in foster care since birth. I was taken by the state i believe, but im not entirely sure. But i just got into touch with my dad for the first time over the past few months in 19 years and i LOVE it. :)

1) In NZ, in the 60s/70s, it was only 10 days - my bmother's agency was actually the one that got that passed through Government. I definitely think it should have been longer. 2) I was in foster care for 3 months because of a small head at birth - I wasn't allowed to be adopted for that period of time. 3) In NZ, by the mid 60s, there were too many babies and not enough homes, yet there was no support available for the mothers to raise them and they were still being counselled to relinquish. It was because of the oversupply that first of all, the counselling changed (though without support, the mothers were still caught in a difficult position) so then the single mothers pension came in and the number of babies available for adoption plummeted - showing that supply and demand can have an effect on the way a woman is counselled and on making known the help that is available.

I was placed with a foster family as well. My mom has papers and pictures that they gave her telling them all about me. Maybe that is how Catholic Charities does their process, but I'm not sure.

I was placed in foster care for about 4 wks, but my adopted brother, 2 yrs later, spent 5 months in foster care. Why? The only difference I can come up with is that he was born at home and maybe his b-mother did not relinquish him right away? I don't know. I've already found my b-parents but my brother has just recently decided to begin his search.

That is not uncommon at all. Back in the day that was pretty much a common practice. Unlike today with social media and pre matches sometimes new borns were there for months until a match was made or a homestudy completed. In my case in the 50s and 60s some newborns were placed in the care of nuns. I was one of the lucky ones that lived with them for the first 3 months of my life. I have found that CC especially were the ones that kept newborns the longest. I have also been told that it was because they did not like to match babies with families that might know each other. I do not know how true that it but it seems to make sense considering many documents were falsified and adoptions were so tightly sealed. Makes me think they needed time to do all that. Sorry I went off on a tangent there, you are lucky to have got all that information about the foster home. For many of us it is a mystery and it is almost as though we were in limbo or that space of time never existed. Now that I think of it that was how the thinking was that you could just erase some life experiences and live like they never happened. What were they thinking?

Sounds pretty much like how my adoption was handled. I was adopted through Catholic Charities in IL in 1980 and was born beginning of October. My parents didn't get the call about me until November, so I was in foster care approx 6 weeks myself before I was placed.

I want to ask you if you were Born in Corry Pa. Was your birth name Baby Girl Johnson? Were you adopted through Chaut. County Social Services?

78Is there any chance you could have been born in Corry Pa. Looking for female born 08/78 Was held somewhere? Mother tall blue eyes , dark hair

I was born in Southern Virginia and adopted in June. I wish you the best in your search. J

In 1994, my stepdaughter reliquished her daughter at 3 days old. Where we live the day you sign the paper all rights are gone. She had the adoptive family chosen. I thought the baby would go to the new family immediately but it was over a month before that happened. I don't know if distance was part of the reason as the chosen family lived very far from our state. It may have been the adoption agency's policy.