Will My Baby Go to Foster Care?

Preparing to place your child for adoption is a difficult decision. When considering this option, many pregnant women ask themselves, “Will my baby go to foster care?”

To ease your fears, the answer is no. In placing your baby for adoption, you are choosing a set path for your child’s life. Your child will not be placed in foster care. Working with a reputable and experienced adoption agency, such as Adoptions With Love, means ensuring that your child is raised in a safe, stable, and loving home. Adoption agencies require prospective adoptive families to pass a lengthy, in-depth home study process. This means that the family adopting your child is healthy – physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially – and is ready for the commitment. It also means that when you place your child for adoption, they will go to a loving family of your choosing.

As you consider your decision to lovingly place your child for adoption, you may have your hesitations. At Adoptions With Love, we want the process to be as smooth and seamless as possible. We navigate the adoption journey with you, every step of the way, without judgment, pressure, or bias. As you weigh your options, read on, as we explore the important differences between foster care and private adoptions.

Private Adoption vs. Foster Care

When you wonder ‘Will my baby go to foster care?’, you should know that the answer is no at Adoptions With Love. In many cases, foster care placement is not a voluntary decision made by a birth parent. Choosing to place your child for private adoption, however, is always entirely up to the birth parents. It is your choice, you are in control.

When an expectant/birth mother makes the decision to place her child for adoption, she also gets to hand-select the perfect adoptive family for baby, as well. This family will be the family that the baby will be raised by, without ever entering the foster care system.

One of the key differences between foster care placements and private adoptions is that the birth parent is selecting the family she wants to raise the baby. Therefore, when you place your child with adoption, they do not go into foster care. There is already a home waiting for baby once you have signed your adoption consent forms. You are the one in charge of this adoption. You are the only one who will decide which family is best for your child, and your adoption specialist can help you find this perfect home. You are given profiles of the many hopeful adoptive parents who are looking to adopt. You can ask questions about them, and you may even contact them directly – either in person or over the phone – to get to know them better before making your decision.

In addition to selecting a family and knowing there will be a home waiting for baby after placing them for adoption, you can also be certain that this home will be a safe and healthy one. All families must undergo and pass the home study, which involves several in-person visits, interviews, criminal background checks, and the disclosure of important information. Adoptions With Love evaluates families’ medical, financial, and personal records before approving a family for adoption. Each person in the household is thoroughly screened to ensure the home will be a safe, stable, and loving environment for a growing child. This gives expectant/birth parents peace of mind, knowing that the risk of their baby ending up in foster care is, essentially, nonexistent.

Unlike foster care, adoption is a lifelong journey that can evolve as your child grows. As an expectant/birth mother considering open adoption, you can choose the form and frequency of communication with your child’s adoptive family before, during and long after the adoption is complete. It is rare for this to happen with foster care placement. With adoption, however, you have the option to keep in touch throughout your child’s upbringing – in a way with which you feel comfortable. If you would prefer to receive emails with updates and photos, that can be arranged. If you would rather chat via text or through social media, that can be arranged. Some birth parents choose to keep up through phone calls or in-person visits.

Open adoption is all about creating – and maintaining – healthy relationships for all involved in the adoption process. When birth mothers make this choice, they typically have a more positive experience that helps them heal and cope with the grief of the placing a child with another family. With foster care, there is no guaranteed contact.

Foster care is designed to be a safeguard against potential neglect, malnutrition, mistreatment or abuse. It is a process for those whose parents need time to improve their situation, with the possibility of being reunified in the future. Foster care does not mean a child is automatically placed for adoption. In fact, when a child is removed from their home, parents are often given multiple opportunities to reunite with the child. By the time the department of child services has stepped in to explore adoption and revoke a person’s parental rights, there are little to no options. With a private adoption agency, like Adoptions With Love, the birth mother is the one to determine if adoption is the best path, and what that plan will look like.

Making an Adoption Plan

If you are considering placing your child with adoption, you should know that it is never too late to make this decision. It is never too late to find a family for your child, whether you are in your third trimester or you have already given birth. Adoption specialists can help you find the right family, and they can take care of all the arrangements to meet in person (if you would like to meet beforehand). When you decide to work with an adoption agency, you and your child will be treated with the respect, dignity, and love that you deserve.

Whether you are pregnant or you have already given birth, you can contact Adoptions With Love at any time for support and guidance. Our services are always completely free for birth mothers. Call us at 800-722-7731, text us confidentially at 617-777-0072, or reach out to us online.