The first few weeks home with a newborn can be daunting. No one is sleeping. Eating issues are frustrating at times. You don't know why this cry or that cry means. And you're trying to get to know this little person with whom you will be living for the next eighteen (plus) years. For mothers who have placed a child, some of these things can trigger unexpected emotional reactions. Add in the hormonal fluctuations that accompany post-partum weeks (and months) and you're bound to feel somewhat overwhelmed. And so, the next question:

During... more

Continued from Part One.

The world stops when a baby is born. The sounds of the nurses bustling around the delivery room kind of fade off into the background, muffled and distant. Peeking up over propped and bent legs, I saw him. Screaming. Healthy. Due to an issue with heart beat dropping and a fever (for both of us) at the end of delivery, he did need to be checked out first. Receiving approval, he was... more

I went into the hospital experience to deliver my second but first parented child thinking that I was ready for just about anything. "Just about anything" was "just about right."

I was actually induced with my son because of toxemia. At my doctor's appointment at thirty-eight and a half weeks, I had gained nine pounds and was spewing proteins in my urine. My doctor sent me straight to the hospital. At four o'clock the next morning, my induction started.

At first, the differences were small but major. For example, my Husband, the father... more

Every mother experiences differences in subsequent pregnancies. Labor and delivery also vary greatly from mother to mother and pregnancy to pregnancy. Due to revolving staff and possibly delivering in another facility, hospital stays can also be greatly different. I asked the participants about their experience.

How was your delivery with your first parented child? How did your hospital experience differ from the delivery and stay with your placed child?

Sometimes it came down to actual... more

I've just finished telling you how other mothers explained their first pregnancy after placement. As I am always willing and open to share my own experience in the hopes that others may learn, I thought I would also take the time to dissect my experience in more detail.

Prior to trying to conceive and becoming pregnant with our first son... more

Continued from the previous post, we're taking a look at how mothers who placed their first child for adoption felt during the pregnancy with their first parented child.

In our previous stories, we've seen how mothers can place a lot of sadness, worry and general negativity on themselves caused in whole or in part by their feelings towards the placement of their first child. Another mother,... more

Today we'll explore the first question I asked the participants in the parenting survey.

How was your pregnancy with your first parented child on an emotional level? Were there things that you experienced emotionally that you did not know to expect or caught you off guard?

I wasn't sure if everyone would understand the basis for this question but the mothers who participated were very perceptive. Even mothers who have parented the children that resulted from... more

I had a wide range of participating mothers who took this survey for the series. I send my heartfelt "thanks" to them today as without their honesty, even on some tough questions, this series would not be possible.

A good place to start in understanding the results of this survey is to look at the adoptions that these mothers have placed their child in, referring to open, semi-open or closed adoptions. My participants represent the skew of adoptions quite well which was not of my doing. I actually... more

Some birth parents do go on to have families of their own. Not all, but some. This series will highlight the issues surrounding the formation of that family and how adoption matters in that process. Today I will give you a general overview of what is to come along with the statistics of the mothers who participated in my survey. Then, for the next two weeks, I will dissect each question and let these mothers tell you their stories. I will chime in from time to time with my own personal journey. I will also... more

I've started working on the information gathered from birth parents in the survey I'm conducting regarding birth parents who go on to (or continue to) parent children after placement. I e-mailed a large group of birth parents who said that they were interested in participating but due to time constraints, emergencies and so on, I do not have the number of responses that I would like to in order to fairly represent all different views, situations and adoption... more