Birth Parents

Birth parents are the biological parents of an adopted child. Before an adoption can be finalized, a child's birth parents must legally relinquish all parental rights to the adoptive parents. Before the finalization, every birth parent must decide if they want to build and maintain a relationship with the adoptive family, sometimes referred to as an open adoption. There is no right or wrong way to approach a birth parent role, meaning that whether or not one chooses to have an open adoption is a personal preference and no research can dictate a more positive or negative effect to either extreme.

Very few adopted children feel discontent with their family or toward their birth parents. However, birth parents can bring a certain tension later in an adoptee’s life. This stands true for a birth parent as well, who may feel guilty when they start a family of their own or at important milestones of the adoptee’s life.

Most birth parents placed their child into an adoptive family because they felt unable to care for the child. That doesn’t mean things can’t change and birth parents may still start families after placing a child. However, it's not uncommon for adult adoptees and their birth parents to want to contact one another for medical updates or out of curiosity and this is something that everyone involved in the adoption should be prepared for.

If you’re a birth parent, become familiar with your state rights and the extent of information that can be voluntarily released or withheld.