Adoption can be a long and difficult journey, but it’s important to understand the current state of domestic infant adoption in the US. In this blog post, Adoption Advisor and mother of one child through adoption, Kelcie Grace, shares the hard truths about the imbalance between prospective adoptive families and expectant parents considering adoption, the types of crisis situations that lead people to consider placing their child for adoption and the increasing issue of in-utero substance exposure in domestic infant adoptions. Join Kelcie Grace as she guides you through the challenges and realities of domestic infant adoption.
When it comes to domestic infant adoption, many prospective adoptive families find themselves waiting for a long time to bring a child into their home. Here are a few hard truths about the current state of domestic infant adoption that contribute to this wait:
There is no need for more prospective adoptive parents in domestic infant adoption
The current reality of the domestic infant adoption world is that there are FAR more prospective adoptive families than there are expectant parents considering adoption and even fewer expectant parents that choose to place their child for adoption than there were previously. Birth rates in the US continue to trend down. There is no need for more prospective adoptive parents for domestic infant adoptions. If you are pursuing adoption to “help children in need” you may want to spend some time reconsidering your reasons. Be honest with yourself, it is okay to want to add to your family, but recognize that the need exists for foster parents in the foster system (particularly for older children), not in domestic infant adoption. Because there is such an imbalance between the number of prospective adoptive parents and the number of expectant mothers considering adoption, prospective adoptive parents’ adoption preferences, otherwise known as what they are open to in their adoption journey, are that much more important now to the timing and success of that family in domestic infant adoption.
The people choosing adoption are in some type of crisis, and many prospective adoptive parents are not open to the crisis circumstances
The people contemplating an adoption plan for their child are typically in some type of crisis situation, which could be long term or short-term crisis. If it is a short-term crisis, the adoption professional should be helping the expectant parents to find resources that will enable them to parent their baby through and after that crisis, if that is what they want. If it’s not short-term or if the expectant parent is certain that adoption is the best plan for their child the professional can move forward in helping the expectant parent with an adoption plan. Contrary to popular belief, the idea that most domestic infant adoptions are teen girls becoming pregnant and choosing to place their baby for adoption so that they can go to college or pursue other avenues is just not accurate. Typically, it is more extreme circumstances that lead a person to consider placing their child for adoption. We are seeing drug addiction, homelessness, extreme poverty, mental illness, Child Protective Service involvement with previous children, and lack of family support systems as some of the reasons people make an adoption plan. Other reasons include domestic violence, rape or incest, and incarceration.
In-utero substance exposure is just one crisis we see in domestic infant adoption
In-utero substance exposure is extremely common with the drug crisis in our country! This is particularly true with White expectant mothers, where we are currently seeing the most in utero exposure and addiction. If you are not open to adopting a child who has been exposed to substances like methamphetamines, heroin, opioids, and/or fentanyl in-utero, you will see fewer cases, even fewer if you are also more limited on the race of the child you’re open to adopting. Many expectant parents struggle with addiction due to childhood trauma and genetic predisposition to substance use disorders. If an expectant parent uses substances at any point in their pregnancy their child will be exposed to these substances while they are still in the womb. The short and long-term impacts of in-utero substance exposure vary based on the substances used, the length of time of the use, the frequency of use, and the stage of fetal development during which the exposure occurs. While it is important for prospective adoptive families to do their due diligence to understand the risks associated with in-utero drug exposure, researching these impacts can be challenging for a number of reasons. One of the main challenges is tha