Open Adoption at Spence-Chapin

Open adoption is not co-parenting. Birth parents relinquish legal and basic child rearing rights to the adoptive parents, but the child has the opportunity to develop a relationship with the birth family.

Spence-Chapin supports open adoption.

In an open adoption, birth parents and adoptive parents meet prior to placement to define the terms of their relationship. These arrangements may include everything from the exchange of pictures and updates on the baby's progress to setting up periodic telephone calls, e-mails and/or face-to-face meetings. Adoptive families who maintain ties to birth families say it allows them to feel connected to their child's roots and enables them to help their child be comfortable with adoption.

A comforting, reassuring option

All of this may sound somewhat scary to adopting families and birth parents who have never thought about being a part of their child's life after the adoption. Spence-Chapin families who are presently involved in open adoptions wonder why more people don't consider it. "It takes the work out of explaining who his birth mother is, because he will know her," says one recent mom. For birth parents, it is reassuring to know that the child is safe and well and to have ongoing communication with the adoptive family. Most families agree to get-togethers planned in advance as they would with other extended family members. The relationships have been compared to that of in-laws, who are not directly related to all members of the family but who are part of the ongoing life of the family, particularly the life of the child.

In the best interest of your child

In the past, critics of open adoptions have maintained that such relationships will damage self-esteem and cause confusion. The Grotevant/McRoy study found no significant differences in self-esteem and socio-emotional adjustment among children involved in varied degrees of openness, including traditional, closed adoptions. The research revealed that children who are included in contact with birth parents have the highest levels of understanding of adoption.

The most extensive study to date of open adoptions has followed 720 people including adoptive families, birth parents and children to the age of twelve. Openness in Adoption, Exploring Family Connections by Harold D. Grotevant and Ruth G. McRoy, published in 1998, found that "parents in fully disclosed adoptions demonstrate higher degrees of empathy about adoption, talk about it more openly with their child, and are less fearful that the birth mother might try to reclaim her child than are parents in confidential adoptions."