Impact of Adoption on Birth Parents: Maintaining Contact

This information was taken directly from Child Welfare Information Gateway

Maintaining Contact

Placing a child for adoption does not necessarily mean a birth parent will never be able to contact the child again. Adoption can have some degree of openness, including some communication between the birth and adoptive families, or the birth family or the adopted person may attempt a search and reunite later in life. Birth and adoptive parents need to determine the level of openness that best matches the needs and wishes of all parties. Birth parents can benefit from information about the advantages of open adoption for children.

The number of open adoptions (in which the birth and adoptive families know each other’s identities and have direct contact) and mediated adoptions (in which contacts between the birth and adoptive families are made indirectly through a mediator) are on the rise. In a 2012 survey of adoption agencies with infant adoption programs, agencies reported that only 5 percent of their placements during the previous 2 years were confidential, with 55 percent of the adoptions being fully disclosed and 40 percent being mediated (Siegel & Livingston Smith, 2012). Although the context around each adoption is unique, research indicates that open adoption can be beneficial for birth parents. Birth parents in an open adoption have been shown to have better postadoption adjustment, increased satisfaction with the adoption process, and better grief resolution (Henney et al., 2007; Ge et al., 2008). For additional information about open adoption and birth family contact, visit Child Welfare Information Gateway at https://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/adoptive/contacts.cfm.

Even if an adoption was not structured as having some level of openness, or if the level of openness has declined over time, birth families and adopted persons still may seek out each other on their own. In a study of 125 birth mothers’ intentions to search for their children, 33 percent stated they would not initiate a search, 50 percent stated they would initiate a search, and 17 percent indicated they might initiate a search (Ayers-Lopez et al., 2008). The primary reasons provided for not searching were that the birth mothers felt it was the child’s right to decide whether to initiate the search and that they did not want to disrupt or complicate the child’s life. The primary reasons provided for wanting to initiate a search were (1) desiring to have contact and a relationship with the child and (2) wanting to know about the child.

Nearly four-fifths of the birth mothers felt their children might search for them, with most of those mothers feeling positive about possible contact.

Continue to Impact of Adoption on Birth Parents: Conclusion and Additional Resources

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Resource

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). Impact of adoption on birth parents. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau.