What are My Birth Mothers Rights in Colorado After an Adoption?
If you’re pregnant and looking for adoption help in Colorado, making sure you understand your rights and obligations in the adoption process is wise. Deciding to place your baby for adoption is a very loving, but difficult choice. Very likely, it will be one of the hardest decisions you make in your entire life. At Adoption Choices of Colorado, we want you to be fully informed about your rights throughout the adoption process, including your rights, as a birth mother, after an adoption.
We are long past the days when birth mothers watched their babies be whisked from the delivery room, never to be seen or heard from again. Even if you’re a teen, looking for pregnancy help, you need to know that you do have rights as a birth mother. Only you can legally decide what choice is best for you and your baby. To best understand yourrights after an adoption in Colorado, it can be helpful to first understand your rights before the adoption takes place.
Exercising Your Rights Before an Adoption Helps Create a Successful Post-Adoption Environment.
Once you sign the paperwork relinquishing your parental rights, you no longer have a legal right to parent your child. Because of the finality of such an important decision, your adoption professional at Adoption Choices of Colorado will help you create an adoption plan that puts in place the kind of post-adoption options that work best for you.
- You have the right to choose your child’s adoptive family. Not only is this choice critical in determining the kind of environment in which your child will live and grow, but it will help you feel confident in the adoptive family’s likelihood of honoring your agreement post-placement. Choosing a family who understands the value of open adoption and the benefits for the adoptee will increase the chances that you have more options for staying in contact with your child post adoption, if that’s what you want.
- You have the right to name your baby.You can have the baby’s name you’ve chosen placed on his or her Original Birth Certificate (OBC) filed at the hospital. There is no legal obligation for the adoptive parents to continue using the name you’ve picked, but if you want to do so, that name will forever be recorded on your baby’s OBC. Of course, whether or not you choose to name the baby is entirely up to you. Many birth mothers opt to leave that decision up to the adoptive parents.
- You have the right to spend time with your baby at the hospital. Even if you didn’t plan to see the baby, you might change your mind once he or she arrives. Your adoption caseworker will be at the hospital to help you navigate all of the steps and any changes that might occur. Until you sign the paperwork relinquishing your parental rights, you are the baby’s legal guardian and you can decide whether or not you want to spend time with him or her. You have every right to take the time you need with your baby before officially placing him or her with the adoptive family.
Does Adoption Choices of Colorado Provide Birth Mothers Help After an Adoption?
Yes, absolutely! While your parenting rights legally end when you relinquish them, you still have rights as a birth motherthat do not end with the adoption. Adoption Choices of Colorado provides many services for birth mothers after an adoption. Our adoption professionals continue to work with you to make sure you get the support you need and understand how to access the resources available to you.
Birth Mothers have the Right to Post-Placement Support.
We have several resources, from support groups to counseling to print resources and beyond to help you process your grief and loss. One such resource is a support group called Lifetime Healing, founded and led by Ashley Mitchell who is, herself, a birth mother. For many birth mothers, talking through your experience with other women who’ve walked the same path can be helpful and comforting. Often these group sessions provide the support families and friends cannot. Sometimes, group sessions aren’t enough, and that’s okay too! If more is needed, Adoption Choices of Colorado can connect you with the type of help you need to get back on your feet.
We are one of the Adoption Agencies in Colorado to Facilitate Semi-Open Adoption Agreements.
ChildConnect is an online platform used by Adoption Choices of Colorado to allow you to stay in contact with your child’s adoptive family if you’ve chosen an open or semi-open adoption plan. Through the portal, everyone in the adoption triad can share information with one another directly, without revealing names or locations.
ChildConnect is a simple way in which adoptive families and birth parents can upload photos and updates, while still maintaining the level of anonymity and privacy agreed upon in the adoption plan. Birth mothers and adoptive families who have agreed to a more open adoption can freely develop their relationship on their own, of course. But Adoption Choices of Colorado can facilitate such exchanges when it’s beneficial.
You have the Right to Privacy After an Adoption in Colorado
For some birth mothers, a closed adoption is the best adoption plan. For others, a semi-open adoption plan allows birth mothers to stay in touch with their child while still maintaining privacy and anonymity. In the modern era of the internet and social media, absolute privacy can be challenging. But Adoption Choices of Colorado safeguards the private records of everyone in the adoption triad. Your personal information, including your name and whereabouts, will not be disclosed to anyone without your consent.
It’s important to remember that while your adoption agency can help facilitate the terms of an open adoption, legally the level of openness is unenforceable in Colorado. Making informed choices in your adoption plan ahead of time, with the guidance of your adoption caseworker, ensures the best chance for a positive post-adoption experience. While it is true that once you sign the relinquishment paperwork, your rights as a parent no longer exist, you always maintainrights as a birth mother for support and care after an adoption.
An adoption professional from Adoption Choices of Colorado can work with you to understand your rights and obligations throughout the adoption process and create an adoption plan that will result in the post-placement experience that works best for you and your baby.
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, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: After graduating from University of Michigan with a degree in Education, majoring in English and Social Sciences, Brianne Davis has spent her adult life as an educator; first in the public schools, later through martial arts. Her ability to convey difficult concepts, navigate varied learning styles, and always keep it interesting defined her reputation as an impactful instructor. Many of her early published blogs centered on the goal of helping other instructors effectively teach children for whom learning is a struggle. Once an empty nester, she committed to sitting in traffic less and writing more. With those goals in mind, she, along with her husband and dogs, packed up, sold their family home, and moved to the banks of the Columbia River in Central Washington’s wine country, where the pace of life is slower and the sun shines brighter. Realizing in our modern age, more of us turn to the internet for information than ever before, Brianne, now dedicates her time to educating others through blog writing.
As a life-long information junkie, Brianne enjoys taking deep dives into new topics, then condensing them in an interesting way to convey valuable information in a relatively short amount of space. Once her career, Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts remain hobbies, along with boating, reading and traveling.
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!