An unexpected pregnancy is often a time of crisis. Intense emotions clash with reason, making it difficult to determine the best course of action. If you’re thinking “I want to put my baby up for adoption,” you are not alone. While some women make the choice to keep their baby, others may feel overwhelmed. How can you know if adoption is the right option? Consider these five possibilities.
1. Opportunities
Adoption provides your baby with opportunities you may not be able to offer. Experiencing an unplanned pregnancy does not give you the luxury of planning financially for a child, especially if you are still in high school or college. An adoptive couple in most cases has tried for years to have a child of their own and planned accordingly.
2. Restoring Hope
Adoption restores hope to those who have dealt with heartache and failure. Infertile couples experience many painful losses. Your baby can be the fulfillment of years of shattered dreams and the one they have been waiting to love for a long time.
3. Safety
Adoption may save your baby from an unsafe situation. If you are in an abusive relationship, bringing your baby into the mix will be detrimental to his or her development and possibly even dangerous. Give your baby the opportunity to grow up free from fear.
4. Future
Adoption is not giving up on your baby but making a mature and carefully considered decision about your baby’s future. In today’s society a wide range of agencies exist to offer adoptions with as much or as little contact as you want. As the birth mother, it is up to you to choose the parents you believe will be best suited to meet the dreams you have for your baby.
5. Love
Adoption exemplifies the highest form of love. Choosing to let your baby be adopted is one of the most sacrificial, loving acts a woman can do for her child. Yes, your heart will be broken but that will be balanced out by the knowledge that you are doing what is best for your child. One birth mother described it like this: “This is the saddest yet happiest experience I have had.”
Adoption transforms a crisis pregnancy into a situation that holds the potential to be more positive and joyful than anything you can imagine. Think of your baby as growing love: physically within you, in the family you are creating, and in the life of love that awaits your baby.
About the Author
Kara Masterson is a freelance from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing about home and family and spending time with her dog, Max. Information credit to Heart to Heart Adoption
