“Giving up” your baby for adoption in Elizabeth, New Jersey is a brave and generous decision. It also comes with a lot of benefits for you: you are given the support of an adoption specialist, the help of an adoption agency in Elizabeth, and the opportunity to continue a loving relationship with your child.

This guide will help you understand the advantages of adoption and the steps of how to place a baby up for adoption in Elizabeth.

If you have not yet eliminated alternative unplanned pregnancy options, an unplanned pregnancy counselor could be extremely helpful to you. They are trained to counsel you through your uncertainty, help you sort out the pros and cons of each option, and help you choose what is best for you and your baby.  

You are not alone now, and neither will you be alone if you choose adoption in Elizabeth. Reach out to an adoption professional to begin your adoption journey.

How to Give Your Baby Up for Adoption in Elizabeth [6 Steps to the Adoption Process]

Unless you have been through the adoption process personally, you likely have a lot of questions about how to place your baby for adoption in Elizabeth. In order for you to fully appreciate the choice and control it offers, you must first understand the adoption process.

After you contact an adoption professional, they will walk you through these basic six-step process:

Step 1: Choose adoption as your unplanned pregnancy option.

Whether a pregnancy is planned or unplanned – whether it happens at the exact right time or occurs at a less-than-ideal stage in your life – it is life-changing. The decision about how to respond to an unplanned pregnancy is a difficult one, and you should know that you are not alone as you contemplate whether “giving up” a baby for adoption in Elizabeth is the right path for you.

It is important for you to know what each unplanned pregnancy choice entails. There are many resources online that can help you become more informed, but an adoption professional can also help to guide you through this challenging choice.

You should know that Elizabeth adoption allows you to:

• Choose who will adopt your baby
• Continue a loving relationship with your child
• Receive adoption financial assistance
• Move toward reaching the goals you had prior to your pregnancy

Step 2: Develop an adoption plan.

After you choose to pursue adoption in Elizabeth, you will begin to work with an adoption specialist from your chosen adoption agency. The first task that they will help you to complete is to create an adoption plan. An adoption plan is the blueprint for your adoption needs and preferences.

At each phase of the adoption process, your adoption plan will inform the support system around you with what they need to know to make sure that your adoption experience is what you need it to be.

Adoption plans often include:

• A description of the ideal adoptive family for your child
• How and with what frequency you want to interact with your baby’s adoptive parents
• Details about your hospital stay organized into a hospital plan
• The kind of post-adoption agreement you want to have with adoptive parents: open, semi-open, or closed

Step 3: Select the perfect family for your child.

For many women, there is nothing more important in the adoption process than choosing the family who will adopt your baby. Certainly, it is one of the most impactful decisions that you will make on behalf of your child. This choice will be yours and yours alone when you pursue an Elizabeth adoption.

Still, you will have the complete support of your adoption specialist. Here’s what you can expect:

• You will create a description of the kind of adoptive family that you want for your child, focusing on the things that matter to you most.
• Your adoption specialist will compile a list of potential adoptive families that match your needs.
• You will review the family profiles of these hopeful adoptive parents to get a feel for who they are and to narrow down your choices.
• When a family sticks out to you, you will tell your adoption specialist, and they will facilitate a phone conversation so that you can get a feel for them and ask any questions you have.
• After this call, you can select this family and move forward into the next steps or you can continue browsing family profiles

Step 4: Begin communication with your chosen adoptive family.

Relationships between birth mothers and adoptive families in an Elizabeth adoption are as unique as the people in them. Some mothers desire a close friendship and frequent contact, and others need more privacy and space. Oftentimes, this aligns with their preference in a post-adoption relationship.

Many birth mothers find that communication before the adoption is complete helps them to feel more at ease with their decision to “give up” a baby for adoption in Elizabeth. You can determine what you need and how you want to interact. The mode and consistency of communication is totally up to you.

Some ways that birth mothers communicate with their chosen adoptive families are:

• Pictures and letters
• Emails and text messages
• Phone calls and video calls
• In-person visits

Step 5: Give birth to your baby and sign adoption placement paperwork.

The hospital plan that you began when you created your adoption plan can be revisited throughout your pregnancy and changed as it gets closer to your delivery date. After some contact with your chosen adoptive family, for instance, you might feel differently about some of the post-birth decisions you outlined in the plan.

Considerations like whether you want the adoptive family in the delivery room, if you would like to have a picture taken with them, or whether you want to nurse your baby might shift as you get closer to your delivery date. That is okay. You can edit your plan to accommodate your needs.

No sooner than 72 hours after the birth of your baby, you will sign the final paperwork for your adoption in Elizabeth. This will indicate your voluntary consent to the transfer of parental rights and will be the last documents you need to sign off on in your adoption.

Step 6: Continue a relationship with your child and their adoptive family.

There is often a period of transition after “giving up” your baby for adoption in Elizabeth. For some women, it is a challenging experience and can bring feelings of grief and loss. Remember that you will still have the support of your adoption specialist and post-adoption support groups that can help too.

An established post-adoption contact agreement (PACA) can provide you with the expectations and security that are needed during this time. A PACA outlines the relationship that you will have with the adoptive family – how you will communicate, what will be shared, and how often you will interact.

Most modern adoptions are open or semi-open because they have proven to be beneficial to each member of the adoption triad – birth mother, child, and adoptive family. If you choose to maintain a relationship with your child, you will be supported by the adoption professionals who work with you.

Elizabeth Adoption Agencies

When you are prepared to initiate the adoption process, you will get in touch with a private domestic adoption agency in Elizabeth who can guide you through the adoption process.

While no two agencies are the same, the adoption professionals you speak with should show you respect, listen to your needs, and place you at the center of every phase of the adoption.

The best adoption agencies in Elizabeth also provide:

• Unplanned pregnancy counseling
• Help completing an adoption plan
• Adoption screening and matching services
• Legal counsel
• Post-adoption counseling
• Financial assistance

The first and most significant way to distinguish private domestic adoption agencies in Elizabeth from one another is to recognize them as either national or local. This is an important distinction because it will impact the amount of choice you are given, especially as you select the adoptive family for your child.

When you work with a national adoption agency, you will be given access to dozens (if not hundreds) of family profiles as you determine what is right for your baby. When you work with a local agency, you will likely be given just a handful of adoption opportunities.

Choosing a national agency will allow you to be more discerning as you look for the perfect family for your baby.  

Some national adoption agencies in Elizabeth are:

• American Adoptions
• Gladney Center for Adoption

Some local adoption agencies in Elizabeth are:

• Alliance for Children
• Children’s Aid and Family Services

Finding an Adoptive Family in Elizabeth

“Giving up” a baby for adoption in Elizabeth can be difficult, and you should feel like you are placed at the center of the process. Your dreams for your child’s life matter and you alone will choose the family who adopts them, raises them, and sets the foundation for their future.

Your adoption specialist will facilitate finding the perfect family for your baby. They will gather family profiles that match your needs, give you the time to review them, and then facilitate any phone conversations you want to have with potential adoptive families.

This decision will have a significant impact on your child, but also will have an effect on your future if you want an open adoption.

Getting Adoption Financial Assistance in Elizabeth

Financial needs often weigh into an unplanned pregnancy decision. It is completely appropriate to wonder about the financial benefits of “giving up” a baby for adoption in Elizabeth. There are many.

First, you should know that adoption is the least expensive unplanned pregnancy option:

• Abortion can cost a woman between $0-1500
• Parenting can cost about $13,000 a year,
• Adoption is absolutely free

Secondly, birth mothers will receive financial assistance. All women can expect:

• Adoption agency services to be free,
• Pregnancy-related medical expenses to be covered, and
• Legal counsel will to be provided without cost to you.

Furthermore, many women are eligible to receive adoption financial assistance in the following categories:

• Rent and utilities
• Groceries
• Phone services
• Counseling
• Transportation
• Childcare

If you are curious about the adoption financial assistance you might be eligible to receive, reach out to an Elizabeth adoption professional.

What’s Next for Your Unplanned Pregnancy?

There are professionals who are eager to help you move into the next stage of your adoption journey.  Contact an adoption expert at any time to begin developing your adoption plan.

Other ways that you can prepare for your Elizabeth adoption are to:

• Build an adoption support system.
• Browse waiting adoptive family profiles.
• Learn all you can about the adoption process.

If you are still trying to decide whether “giving up” your baby for adoption in Elizabeth is the right path for you, you might want to learn about the other unplanned pregnancy choices available.

One way to do this is to reach out to an unplanned pregnancy counselor. If in doubt, reach out to an adoption professional. With them, you will always be centered, listened to, and placed in control.