NY Semi-Open Adoption Pros and Cons
When setting up your adoption plan, the choices and decisions laid out in front of you can seem a bit daunting at first. You want to make the right decision, you want to feel secure about what comes next for both you and your baby. Your adoption options are not binary ones, but a trinary that offers a middle ground for those birth mothers who are seeking the best of both worlds. Semi-open adoptions are specifically tailored through your negotiations and terms you make with the adoptive parents. These typically take on aspects of both an open adoption and a closed one.
If you are a birth mother who is looking for some type of middle ground, semi-adoption is the choice for you. But as with all things, it comes with both its advantages and its disadvantages. Adoptions Choices of New York is going to share with you some semi adoption pros and cons that we know will help give some insight into your decisions.
The Pros of Semi-Open Adoption
The most enticing and particularly unique thing about semi-open adoptions is that they have the space to take on characteristics of both closed and open adoptions. This type of adoption is specifically made to fit your needs that may not swing too close to being a fully closed adoption, or a fully open one. Having both those characteristics of open and closed adoption allows so much wiggle room to take on pieces of both sides of the spectrum.
For example, a birth mother who wants to maintain a sense of privacy and anonymity between her and the adoptive parents can do that. She has the space to keep interactions or contact to the minimum as much as she likes. The opposite of that, she can tune it to whatever maximum she finds herself most comfortable with. It works in favor of the adoptive parents as well because they can deliberate and talk it out about what exactly that limited or unlimited interaction will look like.
We know that children are naturally inquisitive and wish to know things they seek to find answers too. Family background is no exception to this. With having a semi-open adoption, birth mothers can choose whether they would like their child to know about their family history or not. If so, they can choose what exactly can and will be shared when they feel the time is right.
Communication is of the utmost importance in any adoption, but in semi-open it is truly the glue that holds it so safely together. Speaking to your agency, your prospective adoptive family, and other counselors you find in your adoption journey will help mold your adoption plan into exactly the way you want it.
The Cons of Semi-Open Adoption
So we have gone over the positive aspects of semi-open adoption, now we will cover its potential cons birth mothers may find helpful in knowing. We shared how much control and power you have in an semi-open adoption and its amazing benefits, but those benefits might be challenging to some. With all those choices laid out before you, it may get overwhelming. So many things to go over and evaluate, pick out or keep in. This much space to deliberate can be staggering when first met with it.
Semi-open adoptions also donot provide complete anonymity from the adoptive parents, this applies vice versa as well. There is certainly some degree of identification, family or medical history exchanged between the two families that is needed in the adoption plan. If full confidentiality is wanted, semi-open adoptions might not be the best adoption plan for you.
Because of semi-open adoptions having both characteristics of closed and open adoptions, it can sometimes be hard for birth mothers to find definitive closure when the adoption process finalizes. In other words, you may find the terms and agreements you made a little too ambiguous or full of potential of changing in the future.
There is also the possibility of there being a heightened sense of grief in a semi-open adoption that birth mothers may find themselves feeling. Because of communication with the adoptive family and child not being fully open or closed, a birth mother may find herself feeling frustrated or saddened by it. Navigating and feeling out what is best for you is imperative to creating the best adoption plan for you. The semi-open adoption pros and cons we’ve put together is meant to help you do exactly that.
Is Semi-Open Adoption Right For You?
If you’re looking for the right adoption option for you and your child, we hope this was helpful in narrowing down your search. There is always a third option if you don’t find a fully open or a fully closed plan suitable for you.
Adoption Choices of New York is available to assist with your adoption plan. Call us, text us, email us; we are here for you!
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