Adoption down 50%?

House of Lovelock

I know it's been mentioned before, but I am really really seeing this more and more. Talked to one agency typically had 20 adoptions a year, last year 1, this year 3.

Others were about 50% down.

Are births down in general, or just adoptions? Anyone know?

erinmc1

I don't know any hard statistics, but my agency is at about half their typical annual placement.  That seems to fit with what you're saying.

House of Lovelock

I keep thinking maybe there are so many agencies now, that adoptions are just more spread out, not down?

erinmc1:

I don't know any hard statistics, but my agency is at about half their typical annual placement.  That seems to fit with what you're saying.

Ginger71

If my agency is any indication, I believe it. We have been hs approved for 3 months and have not been show to 1 single family. So discouraging!

House of Lovelock

Maybe?

House of Lovelock

I know, I have been thinking how discouraging it is. If I thought that more woman were keeping their babies, that would be a good thing, but I've also been wondering if the slew of day after pills they now push doesn't have something to do with it. 

Ginger71:

If my agency is any indication, I believe it. We have been hs approved for 3 months and have not been show to 1 single family. So discouraging!

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House of Lovelock

I agree about the loss, grief, & pain. But I can't imagine my life without my son!

 

fredalina:

House of Lovelock:

I know, I have been thinking how discouraging it is. If I thought that more woman were keeping their babies, that would be a good thing, but I've also been wondering if the slew of day after pills they now push doesn't have something to do with it. 

Ginger71:

If my agency is any indication, I believe it. We have been hs approved for 3 months and have not been show to 1 single family. So discouraging!

Well if a woman who is not morally opposed to the "morning after pill" can prevent the torment of going through a pregnancy and choosing either surgical abortion, adoption, or parenting, I'm all for it.

House of Lovelock

Ah yes! Forgot about Teen Mom! 

SweetC80:

I am just lurking, so I hope you don't mind me jumping in. I just had a conversation this week w/ a friend of mine waiting for a match. She said her agency has told them that their wait times for parents on the adoption list have almost tripled over the last 5 years. They say it largely is due to the increase of teen parents choosing to keep their babies because of the Teen Mom shows. The agency she uses is a local agency and this reason for the decrease in adoption may be location/agency specific.

steph196

Our agency typically has 30 placements a year, but they've only had 12 this year so far.

House of Lovelock

Are you in OC, Ca?  If so, we live by each other!  

steph196:

Our agency typically has 30 placements a year, but they've only had 12 this year so far.

steph196

House of Lovelock:

Are you in OC, Ca?  If so, we live by each other!  

steph196:

Our agency typically has 30 placements a year, but they've only had 12 this year so far.

I am in OC! We live in Fullerton. 

kacelle

House of Lovelock:

I know, I have been thinking how discouraging it is. If I thought that more woman were keeping their babies, that would be a good thing, but I've also been wondering if the slew of day after pills they now push doesn't have something to do with it.

Ginger71:

If my agency is any indication, I believe it. We have been hs approved for 3 months and have not been show to 1 single family. So discouraging!

I really, really don't think this is the reason.  I work in a pregnancy resource center, and counsel a lot of adolescents and women in "crisis pregnancy" situations, and adoption just isn't something many of them think very highly of.  I often have clients considering abortion or parenting, but who are entirely opposed to adoption.  I've even had a client tell me a woman who gets pregnant should parent regardless of her ability to provide for the child or her desire to be a parent, because she has to live with her mistakes.  Yikes.  I'd be more inclined to attribute lower rates of babies being placed with adoptive families to higher rates of parenting and to surgical abortions and miscarriages being fairly common than to Plan B.

MayDayGirl

Our old agency is down too. So strange

House of Lovelock

Yeah, maybe not, but I do know that my nurse friend just did a study with Planned Parenthood and it's incredible how many woman are using the pill as birth control. I think it could be a factor.

House of Lovelock

I just saw your blog, I think you used our old agency! Congrats on your baby btw! 

steph196:

House of Lovelock:

Are you in OC, Ca?  If so, we live by each other!  

steph196:

Our agency typically has 30 placements a year, but they've only had 12 this year so far.

I am in OC! We live in Fullerton. 

BostonLove11

Personally, I think in this day and age more birth parents are turning to the Internet to find parents for their child using websites like parent profiles.com. So perhaps less agency and more independent.

francophonia

I adopted privately. My wife and I knew, even though we live in a liberal state, that there are several things about us that would be undesirable to most adoption agencies, since the majority of adoption agencies in our area are religious institutions. We also didn't want to deal with the pain of waiting for placement, the home visits, the bureaucracy, and because I wanted to breastfeed our adopted child (I was still breastfeeding my son when we decided to adopt, so I kept pumping) we just didn't have forever to wait for a child. We met our BM through someone we knew and completed the adoption with a lawyer.

 

I don't know if overall adoption is down, but it's very possible adoptions through agencies are down. I'd definitely believe it if people are disillusioned with the idea of agencies, especially people who don't fit into the cookie-cutter family that most adoption agencies look for.  I know we're disillusioned with agency adoptions. Harsh truth is all forms of adoptions have drawbacks, but we think that going privately was a much better decision.