Medical history, etc...

Mush-Tastic

The hubby and I have our 6th, and final home study interview coming up this coming Monday morning. It's the big one, where our SW will be coming to our home.

We have been asked to really discuss this weekend what we are willing to accept when having our profile shown to EMs. 

What sort of medical history or things other than fetal alcohol syndrome and drug use would cause you to take pause a minute in making that decision? I don't think we're going to be ruling out very much, and thankfully working in health care, I have a ton of different MDs I work for that I can consult with should the need arise, but I'd love to hear from you lovely ladies your thoughts on the subject...

Thanks!

Rachel Sonnier

We were pretty much the same way. I don't have anything to add except, good luck Monday!! I'm sure you are excited to be almost to the end of the HS phase! :-D

lizlemon2

I considered things on a case by case basis.  I would be worried about FAS like you said, and crystal meth or heroin use.  Methadone or marijuana wouldn't trouble me as much depending on usage.  I would also maybe worry about psychotic disorders such as Schizophrenia in bio family.  Other than that, I figured we could handle other things.  GL in your decision.

MagickalNarwhal

Schizophrenia was the only health issue that we did not want to consider. That said we did show our profile for an expectant mom who had a schizophrenia diagnosis but we read the profile, got a lot more info and ultimately believed she was misdiagnosed.

Heavy alcohol use meth and heroin were the main substance risk factors that were concerning, both for the baby's health and for the possible implications for the open relationship we hoped to build.

Good luck! It's awesome you have access to so much professional knowledge!

bhead81

We were open to pretty much everything and agreed to take it on a case by case basis. One child with a given situation/condition can be totally different than another with the same.

Dr.Loretta

We were actually more open than the average bear to social drinking

We were also asked about prematurity, and how early/small we were willing to consider.

We were called about showing our profile to a BM (baby was already born) who had a condition with a strong genetic component (think something like polycystic kidney disease). We had to decide if we were willing to be shown for a child who had a strong chance of having the condition, and an unknown chance of showing symptoms requiring treatment.

Just a few scenarios to think about

baze2

We are open to social drinking, light drug use..

However that being said we have turned down the opportunity to parent a child who was born to a mother who admitted to using herion and cocaine every day of her pregnancy with a positive drug screen for these as well as meth..there was a very very very strong family history on both sides of alcoholism and herion addiction. This being said, I wonder if it was to cover up some undiagnosed mental disorder...that situation was bigger than we are. We are still torn up about it but it was just to big...

I think you have to look deep inside and realize what you are willing/able to handle.

 

Mush-Tastic

Thanks, everyone!

Our final meeting was this morning and our SW showed us some examples of birth mother profiles we will be receiving prior to her looking at profiles so we can decide based upon that info, whether or not we'd like to be shown. She was very willing to put us down on a case-to-case basis, so we are thankful for that. It was great to hear everyone's input! I appreciate it.