New Report Released Open Adoption

[url=http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/report-details-increase-open-adoptions-15969440]'Open' Adoptions on the Rise - ABC News[/url] The secrecy that long shrouded adoption has given way to openness, and only about 5 percent of infant adoptions in the U.S. now take place without some ongoing relationship between birth parent and adoptive family, according to a comprehensive new report. Nish said New York-based Spence-Chapin espouses the principle of self-determination in working with birthmothers on their hopes for post-adoption arrangements. But he said the agency won't work with adoptive parents who insist on having no contact with the birthmother. "We try to educate them," he said. "If they're really set on it being closed, we tell them we don't do closed adoptions." Evan B. Donaldson released this new report: •"Closed" infant adoptions have shrunk to a tiny minority (about 5 percent), with 40 percent "mediated" and 55 percent "open." In addition, 95 percent of agencies now offer open adoptions. •In the overwhelming majority of infant adoptions, adoptive parents and expectant parents considering adoption meet, and the expectant parents pick the new family for their baby. •Adoptive parents, like most participants in open adoptions, report positive experiences; more openness is also associated with greater satisfaction with the adoption process. •Women who have placed their infants for adoption – and then have ongoing contact with their children – report less grief, regret and worry, as well as more peace of mind. •The primary beneficiaries of openness are the adopted persons – as children and later in life – because of access to birth relatives, as well as to their own family and medical histories. Putting an end to secrecy in adoption does not erase the grief or loss embedded in the experience; it does, however, empower participants by providing them with information and access so that they can face and deal with facts instead of fantasies. Adoption-related laws, agency policies and clinical practices should support the autonomy, self-determination, truth-telling and family connections of adopted people and their birth and adoptive relatives. [url]http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2012_03_OpennessInAdoption.pdf[/url]