My Pregnancy

You're pregnant. Now what?

If you're considering adoption as an alternative to raising the child, you'll need to find an agency or attorney to help facilitate the search for adoptive parents. You'll also need to find a physician, nurse, midwife or other health care provider to help you with prenatal care. Teens and young women who choose place the infant with an adoptive family can be as active as they want in the adoption process. They can engage in a closed adoption, in which they know nothing about the adoption and everything is facilitated by an attorney. Or, they can choose a semi-open or open adoption. In these, the future birth mother will read through parent profiles and meet the adoptive parents.

Future birth mothers are like any other pregnant woman, and will experience about nine months of overwhelming emotional and physical changes. This alone can be too much for many women and handling an adoption on top of this can be even more daunting. Many agencies will provide you with counseling and other methods of support before and after the placement.

Although the child will be placed with an adoptive family, you should try to be educated about pregnancy and health care. Making lifestyle changes, concerning diet, alcohol consumption or drug use are all key to a successful pregnancy. Committing to the placement includes committing to the child for the nine months that you must care for it.