Choosing your own post-placement relationship with your child and his or her parents is one of the joys of going through an adoption journey. You can choose whether you desire an open, semi-open, or closed adoption with your baby!

Open adoptions make a dream come true when a prospective birth mother wants to have contact with her child during his or her upbringing. On the other hand, semi-open adoption offers a mediated relationship between a birth mother and her baby. Finally, closed adoption allows a birth mother to continue her journey with privacy and separation from the baby she places for adoption.

But, how do you decide what type of post-placement relationship you want? The first step is to understand your options. Then, you can begin asking yourself what your perfect post-placement relationship would look like!

Your adoption professional can also assist you in your decision-making process, so be sure you ask a lot of questions about your post-placement options in Indiana to ensure you are informed!

What is Open Adoption in Indiana?

An Indiana open adoption is when a birth mother has direct contact with her child after an adoption placement. This contact can come in any form and frequency; there is no “one-size-fits-all” when choosing open adoption in Indiana.

You may choose to communicate with your child via in-person visits, phone calls, texting and online messaging, or exchanging letters and pictures. You may want to see your child annually, speak with him or her on holidays, share frequent updates or even live within visiting distance of him or her. You may choose to connect once a day, week, month or year.

There is no Indiana open adoption definition that excludes certain communication and frequency parameters. If the post-placement relationship works for you, your child and his or her adoptive parents, then it is considered a successful Indiana open adoption story!

What is Closed Adoption in Indiana?

Many women have their own personal and valid reasons for not wanting a relationship with their child after placement. Perhaps you are one of them. If so, closed adoption may be right for you.

Closed adoption is when a prospective birth mother opts to not have contact with her child or the adoptive parents after he or she has been placed with them. This path offers privacy and separation for the birth mother who desires space to heal and move forward.

Closed adoptions used to be considered the “norm” in the United States. Unfortunately, the reasons for this prevalence had more to do with shaming women who chose adoption than offering empowerment to those women who wanted privacy after an adoption. However, recent decades have brought about social evolution, shining a more empowering light on birth mothers!

Open adoption is swiftly becoming the more acceptable post-placement relationship option for prospective birth mothers. In this modern day and age, society is beginning to embrace birth mothers and encouraging a woman’s choice of the type of post-placement relationship she wants with her baby. In fact, adoption professionals agree that open adoption offers a plethora of benefits to all parties involved in the adoption. Research studies prove these benefits, and their results encourage strong recommendation by adoption professionals for open adoption in Indiana.

What is Semi-Open Adoption in Indiana?

Semi-open adoption in Indiana is a post-placement relationship that offers a happy middle ground for the prospective birth mother who may desire a mediated relationship with her child. In an Indiana semi-open adoption, the adoption agency who facilitated the placement will serve as the mediator. A birth mother in this type of post-placement relationship can exchange letters, pictures, updates, and more with her baby by sending them to her adoption agency, who will then forward them on to the adoptive family (and vice-versa).

A semi-open Indiana adoption gives a birth mother the opportunity to have a relationship with her child while still maintaining her personal privacy.

The Benefits of Open Adoption in Indiana

There are benefits for everyone when choosing an Indiana open adoption. The birth mother, her child and the adoptive parents will all reap the rewards of supporting an open adoption!

The first, and probably one of the most important, benefits is for the child who was placed: Adopted children in open adoptions have healthier self-images! Adopted children tend to ask more questions about their family history and how adoption should shape their identity. An open adoption in Indiana allows a child to ask questions about where they came from and have access to those answers.

When there is openness in the adoption relationship, children are more comfortable asking about their personal history and accepting the answers presented to them. Therefore, the adoptee becomes more secure in his or herself during upbringing, resulting in a happier and healthy adult!

Adoptive parents find many benefits in Indiana open adoption, as well. Adoptive parents who actively participate in an open adoption with their child’s birth mother will find that they are better equipped to parent their child by gaining important updated medical information, educating their child on his or her birth family history and enjoying a potentially lifelong relationship with their child’s birth mother!

Birth mothers in open adoptions in Indiana benefit in so many ways, including being supported in walking a path of healing after choosing adoption! A birth mother gets to see her child grow up healthy and happy, which can help her come to terms with her placement decision.

If you are wondering what open adoption in Indiana means for you, please fill out this contact form. An adoption professional will reach out to you and discuss all the benefits of choosing open adoption for your baby in Indiana!