In many posts, I mention that you should research your options in order to make an informed decision. I thought I should dedicate a whole post to this and explain in more detail exactly what I mean by this.

By researching your options, I mean that you should research and educate yourself about both adoption and parenting.

Find out what resources are available to you should you choose to parent. Does your state have programs to help with childcare? Do you qualify for any programs such as Medicaid or WIC?

Find out about the adoption laws in your state. Are you required to use an agency? What is the revocation period in your state? When after birth can you sign relinquishment papers?

The purpose of researching both your options is to help you make an informed decision. If you go into this thinking that adoption will be the best decision and do not research parenting, you really don’t know if you could have handled parenting. But if you research parenting and then find that adoption would still be the best option, then you have made an informed decision. You knew about both of the options and then made the decision based on what you had learned.

I regret not educating myself more about what options were available to me had I chosen to parent my birth son. Who knows, I may still have chosen adoption in the end, but I think I would at least feel like I had given it my all now.

I’ll close with this quote by author and birthmother, Patricia Dischler. She sums it up well.

“The only way to know for sure that adoption IS right for you is to also find out that keeping your child is NOT the right answer for you. The more a birthmother knows up front, the better chance of it evolving into a positive situation.”

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Related Resources:
Choosing to Parent
Educating Yourself about Adoption