Taking your Baby Home

Even though you are considering adoption, you still have the right to bring your baby home from the hospital. Some expectant mothers considering adoption may take their baby home from the hospital with the intent to parent. Some may be successful at parenting while others may decide once giving parenting a try that adoption is still the right decision for them. There are others still that may bring their baby home for an amount of time to have a little more time with their baby fully intending to place their child for adoption once they have spent more time with their baby outside of a hospital setting.

There are days that I regret not at least trying to parent. I will never know for sure if I couldn’t have done it because I didn’t try. However, I do think if I had brought my baby home from the hospital with me, that I would not have placed him for adoption. I think that it would have made it much harder to place him because I would have had even more time to bond with him and become even more attached and in love with him than I already was. However, since I have not walked in those shoes, I can’t say for sure.

I think that most adoption agencies and adoption professionals would frown up on this and try to discourage an expectant mother from taking her baby home from the hospital even if she was intentional on following through with placement. I imagine that they too, like me, would think that would make the outcome of an expectant mother parenting much more likely than if she placed as soon as the baby was discharged from the hospital.

I’m sure that prospective adoptive parents would be nervous about being matched pe-birth with an expectant mother who is intending to take her baby home for a bit before placing him or her for adoption. I imagine that they would also think that this would make the outcome of thee expectant mother parenting much more likely than if she placed as soon as the baby was discharged from the hospital.

I’m not saying that every expectant mother should bring her baby home from the hospital. I’m also not saying that every expectant mother should not either. What I am saying is that I think expectant mothers should know that it is an option and a right that you have. You do not become your child’s birthmother until you sign relinquishment papers and until that moment you are your child’s parent.

In my next post, I will talk with one birthmother who brought her baby home from the hospital for a week before placing her.

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Related Posts:
Your Rights
The Rights of an Expectant Mother Making an Adoption Plan
Spending Time with Your Baby

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