Understanding Birthmoms Considering Adoption

It’s very easy to make snap judgments before understanding the whole story. Our modern age is a more welcoming, understanding, and inclusive society than in ages past, but prejudice and stigma still exist. One such stigma that has waned a lot in recent years, but still exists for many people, is the one surrounding expectant mothers who choose to place their children for adoption.

Unplanned pregnancies are always scary, and making the decision to place the child for adoption is extremely difficult and emotional for most people. In the hopes that this will help readers in understanding birthmoms and their decision to place their children for adoption, we’re going to discuss some of the reasons why a woman might want to do this and why it is such a hard decision to make.

Reasons Women Choose to Place Their Babies for Adoption

A lot of people seem to think that most women choose to place their babies because of financial problems, but this is not always the case. The exact reasons behind placing a baby for adoption will be different for every birth mother, but these are some of the most common ones:

• The birth mother doesn’t feel as though she is ready to raise a child. Maybe a woman does want to have children someday, but due to some circumstance in her life, she feels unequipped to raise a baby. Maybe she is still very young, maybe she wants to focus on other life goals, maybe her finances just aren’t there. All of these are completely valid reasons for placing a child for adoption.

• The birth mother doesn’t want children. Not everyone wants kids, and that is completely okay. It’s generally better for both the birth mother and the child to go for adoption in such a case. That way, the mother can ensure that her baby goes to a safe, loving family that desperately wants children.

• The birth mother was a victim of sexual assault and doesn’t want to raise the child. It’s a sad but unfortunately very real circumstance that many women face. A lot of sexual assault victims will not feel comfortable raising the child of the person who raped them, and in most cases, the child will probably be better off being raised by someone else as well.

• The birth mother doesn’t have adequate support. In many cases of unplanned pregnancy, the child’s father is not around for one reason or another, and if a woman is single and lives far from any family members or friends, she may feel overwhelmed by the idea of having to raise a child all by herself. Babies take a lot of work, and trying to raise one all by yourself is exhausting.

• The birth mother wants her child to have better opportunities. If a birth mother doesn’t feel like she can give the child everything they might need, she might choose adoption so that she can make sure the child will grow up and have a chance to thrive. In some cases, the birth mother might choose an open adoption after this, so that she can see that her child is given the opportunities she didn’t get to have.

Whatever their reason may be, expectant mothers have the right to make the decision of how to handle their pregnancy and whether to move forward with the adoption they’re considering.