Birth Mothers' Financial Needs

For many birth parents, financial concerns are one of the leading reasons why they choose to place their child for adoption.

In a domestic adoption, some birth parents may need assistance with living expenses such as rent, food and utilities prior to and immediately following the birth of the child. Others do not need financial assistance. Some birth parents also may need assistance with medical bills pertaining to the pregnancy and birth, while others will have medical care covered via private insurance or Medicaid.

Some prospective adoptive families wrongly assume that living expenses are a way of buying the baby. To overcome this concern, it is helpful to understand why living expenses are needed. 

Birth mothers are often choosing adoption due to their financial situation or difficulty in properly caring for a child. Although there is no "typical" birth parent, many birth parents stress a fear of not being able to provide for their child, thus choosing adoption. Each adoption story is unique and each birth parent has their own reasons for choosing adoption. American Adoptions has worked with birth parents of all backgrounds, including married couples with full-time jobs, college students with part-time jobs and those who do not have any source of income.

If a birth mother is considering adoption because they would struggle finanically raising a child, then they are likely financially struggling during the pregnancy, too. In that case, it only makes since that some birth parents need help with rent, utilities, maternity clothes and food, especially when one considers that finding and keeping lower paying physical labor employment is challenging as the pregnancy progresses. It is for this reason that living expenses are more common in the later stages of the pregnancy and less common in the earlier stages when she can work.

Judges often accept living expenses because he/she wants to make sure the birth mother has the proper medical care, shelter, food and clothing to take care of herself and her pregnancy. Since every adoptive family wants to adopt as healthy of a baby as possible, they too begin to understand a different view point in the importance of living and medical expense support during the pregnancy.  

Living expenses are not involved in every adoption but when living expenses are involved it is important to choose a professional that is licensed by their state and has a solid reputation. It is also important to determine if living expenses are at risk if the birth mother changes her mind. With 99 percent of the adoption professionals, living expenses are at risk for their client. American Adoptions is unique from most proessionals in that our living expenses are not at risk should the birth mother change her mind. Furthermore, living expenses are approved by judges or our state licensure allows for the dessimination of living expenses.