Open Adoption: What To Consider

If you are currently either thinking of adopting a child or giving a child up for adoption, one of the major considerations you'll be spending time on is whether or not to have an 'open' or 'closed' adoption. Faced with this dilemma, the following are some of the reasons why you may want to consider having an open adoption.

Unlike a closed adoption, an open adoption is where all parties to the adoption know each other prior to the adoption and post the adoption. In other words, the adoptive parents have the chance to meet the birth mother and both parties have the chance to discuss the future of the child and possibly see what each of them has in common. Although adoptive parents may feel this is a little like being 'interviewed', in fact it gives the birth mother reassurance that the adoptive family are who she feel happy with adopting her child and allows the adoptive family the chance to see that the birth mother has her reasons for putting her child up for adoption.

Post adoption, one of the major reasons why having an open adoption is good is a reason neither for the benefit of the birth mother or the adoptive parent - but for the child itself. That reason is a medical one. With closed adoptions it is extremely difficult to ascertain whether or not an adoptive child is going to have medical complications in later life, and with so many illnesses now being linked to genetics, it is vital that a child have access to their natural parents' medical history. With closed adoptions this option is out.

A further reason why open adoptions have proven to be more successful than closed adoptions is due to the physiological well-being of the child. At some point, which every parent in closed adoptions dreads, the child is going to either become aware of the fact or be told that they are adopted. In an open adoption this is rarely a major issue, as the adopted child has known all along they were adopted. However, with children in closed adoptions this can cause major trauma, where seeking out the birth parents becomes the new passion in their lives. This can cause a rift between the adoptive parents and the adopted child.

Moreover, with access to information about one's birth parents rarely being 'closed' forever (children can cite a number of reasons why their files should be opened, including the need to know their birth parents' medical history), there seems less reason these days to have closed adoptions and plenty of positive reasons why you may wish to consider an open adoption.