How to Ensure a Healthy Future for Your Baby
By: Katherine Burns
As a newly pregnant woman who has decided on adoption, there are many steps to go through to ensure a safe and healthy future for your baby. That work starts with how you handle your pregnancy. To be able to bring your baby safely into a loving home, you must first have a healthy pregnancy. This means maintaining proper physical health, having routine contact with medical professionals, maintaining steady mental health, and having a safe place to be for this emotional and difficult time period – all assistance that we can help you with!!
Prenatal and Medical Care
One of the first steps to a healthy pregnancy is proper prenatal care. It is important to have routine screenings done, so if there are any health complications, they can be anticipated by medical professionals. Adoption Choices of Colorado assigns each birth mother caseworkers to help them organize their prenatal appointments and tour hospital facilities. Any medical expenses that are not covered by the state, or by your own personal insurance, will be covered by the adoptive family. Your caseworker will also help to provide transportation to any hospital appointments, to pick up prescriptions, to apply for Medicaid, or food stamps. Adoption Choices of Colorado and potential adoptive families want to work with you to guarantee a healthy future for your baby.
Taking Care of Your Physical Health
Ensuring a healthy pregnancy starts with what you put in your body. Eating for two requires a lot more consumption. Be sure to consult with your doctor to make sure how many calories you should be eating a day, and if there are any foods to avoid. For instance, some sources will tell you to steer clear of undercooked eggs, meat, raw seafood and cold cuts. These can potentially contain bacteria that could harm your baby.
You are also advised to cut out any use of drugs or alcohol. Any alcohol can have long-term effects towards the health of your baby. These can include speech problems, learning differences, and physical health defects. Drinking can also increase the possibility of a miscarriage. Even if you aren’t planning to parent the child that you are carrying, you owe it the best life possible. Cutting out something harmful like alcohol ensures a healthy future for your baby.
Exercise is also key to ensuring a healthy pregnancy. It provides you with strength and energy to go about your pregnancy in the best possible way. Exercise also reduces stress, which increases health overall, both physically and mentally. Don’t overdo it, as too much exercise, or an effort to look “skinny,” could be harmful to your baby.
While a healthy diet and exercise can be great energy boosters, the body does require rest. As a pregnant woman your body may be requiring more rest than you anticipated. Listen to your body, and get a proper amount of sleep. Don’t be afraid to take naps! Rest is good for both you and the baby.
Mental Health
Physical health may seem like it takes precedence to have a healthy pregnancy, but mental health is often overlooked, which makes it important. As a birth mother who has decided to place her child for adoption, you are going through an emotionally trying time. Grief is something that can be anticipated in all phases of the adoption process. Adoption Choices of Colorado is proud to offer counseling services to all birth mothers. This is a method of support that can be used during this difficult time. To relinquish a child for adoption is often extremely painful, and heartbreaking. We do not underestimate the weight of that decision. We are empathetic and understanding.
Birth fathers are also eligible to receive counseling, if that is applicable. It is understandable that it would be an emotional time period for him as well. There are also many reading materials that are available to you, many recommended by Adoption Choices. It can be so beneficial for your mental health to read the stories of other mothers, and those that have been through what you are experiencing.
Housing
Substandard housing conditions often lead to poor health conditions. You need to have a clean and safe place to live in order to maintain your own health, and the health of your baby. The impact of housing on health is something that Adoption Choices of Colorado takes into serious consideration. We are happy to help you apply for affordable housing should your situation require it. One of the keys to a healthy pregnancy is a stress-free environment and a safe and stable place to call home.
Caring for Your Child
One of the reasons birth mothers choose adoption is because they themselves are unable to care for the child that they’re carrying. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t provide the child with the best care possible during the pregnancy. If the baby is healthy, carried to term and placed in a loving adoptive family, then, as a birth mother, you have done the best that you can for your child. The environment that you surround yourself in, the food that you place in your body, the exercise that you do and the positive influences in your life are all important components for the health of your pregnancy. Adoption Choices of Colorado is excited to help you facilitate those relationships and is well-abled to provide you with any necessary support.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and want to learn more about your adoption options, contact Adoption Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Call us: 720-371-1099, Call or Text us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!