You Are Not Alone

All you have to do is ask around.

When you think of a woman that places her baby for adoption, what comes to mind?

Poll your friends and coworkers, and then ask your grandpa or an older neighbor.

You'd probably expect someone from your grandparents' generation to have a very outdated image of a birth mother. However, unless enlightened by firsthand experience, most people have a very misguided idea about adoption.

It's no surprise that ideas of birth mothers tend to parallel the stereotypes of these women portrayed in the media: an uneducated 17-year-old deserted by her family, forced to "give up" her baby to an adoption agency in exchange for rent and food money.

The evolution of adoption has been monumental in 20 years and even more dramatic in the past decade. Long, long gone are the days when women facing unplanned pregnancies "gave up" babies to adoption agencies as a "last resort."

Placing a baby for adoption is an extraordinary expression of selflessness, requiring a complex decision-making ability concluding adoption to be a win-win-win choice. Women who choose adoption not only choose to give the miracle of life to a new human being, but also to give the gift of parenthood to families who want nothing more in the world.

Doesn't sound much like the characteristics of an uneducated girl with nothing left but despair?

That's because birth mothers are far from embodying this one image. Rather, birth mothers encompass virtually every age group, ethnicity, marital status, profession and sexual orientation.