Benefits of Open Adoption

Our experience with open adoption has revealed the following benefits for all members of the adoption circle:

Open adoption benefits for the child:

• A clearer sense of identity
• Understanding they are loved by their birth family and why they chose adoption
• Ready access to information about their medical and social history
• Access to biological siblings, if there are any

Open adoption benefits for adoptive parents:

• Knowledge that birthparents chose adoption freely and willingly
• A feeling of entitlement and being personally entrusted to raise the child
• Dissolution of fantasies about birthparents or fear of the unknown
• Greater ability to answer the child's questions about his or her origins
• Ongoing access to birthhparents' medical and social histories

Open adoption benefits for birthparents:

• An opportunity to personally answer their birth child's questions about his or her adoption
• Reassurance of knowing the child is safe and thriving.