A couple of hours to look into a tiny face. Touch little fingers curled around one of her own. Tell the sleepy newborn that she loved her deeply and explain why the infant soon would be placed in the arms of another couple. Open adoption is a modern approach to adoption that encourages contact between the birth family and the adoptive family throughout the child's life, beginning even before the child is born. Buckner Children and Family Services, the agency that handled the adoption for Hannah, has practiced strictly open adoptions for the last six years, according to Lori Wilkerson, a case manager for Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services of Dallas.
Every child deserves an open adoption.
Psychologically and emotionally, it's better for each child. Open adoption differs from other types of adoption, such as semi-open or closed, by offering the birth family the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with the adopted child through as much contact as the birth family and the adoptive family agree on. For Hannah, involvement has included giving baby Sophie a middle name and participating in the baby's baptism. Openness also helps reassure birth mothers that they're making a responsible decision, Wilkerson said. For example, a birth mother often worries that she's turning her child over to complete strangers, she said, or that no one can love her baby the way she can.