Mainstream Magazine Wants Birth Mother Perspective

While the LA Times article did cover the birth mother perspective in their two part series, it is rare to see a story about a first mother in the mainstream media. Magazines, even ones that feature mothering issues, rarely feature stories on birth parents. We’re still considered less than or taboo by the glossy-paged experts in the grocery store checkout line. Well, perhaps we can make a singular change to that rule.

I’ve been speaking with Gina Shaw for a few weeks now. She is a freelance writer who regularly published things for Redbook magazine. She’s also an adoptive mom involved in a domestic open adoption. She’s busy working on an article about, you guessed it, adoption. While the story is featuring a few different adoptive moms in various adoptive situations, they are also seeking a first mother involved in an open adoption to tell her story.

That’s right: a mainstream magazine wants our input.

For this particular article, Gina (and her editor!) is (are) seeking a birth mother involved in an on-going fully open adoption relationship with the placed child’s family. While there aren’t many stipulations as to how often contact or visits occur or how the adoption came about, there is one requirement that will filter out a few who may otherwise agree to such an endeavor. To quote from Gina’s request for involvement on the forums:

The only thing is that you’d have to be comfortable having your real name used and having a family picture published.

Some birth mothers may not be comfortable featuring themselves in a magazine that their friends, colleagues or family members may read. Even open adoptions do afford for a sense of privacy among acquaintances. Being featured in a national magazine kind of removes that sense of privacy. However, for other birth mothers, the issue may be that you or your child’s family don’t want to post a picture of that child for the nation to see. One birth mother friend of mine questioned whether it would be developmentally appropriate to feature her tween daughter in the article at such an awkward time. (Do you remember middle school?!) And so the decisions on whether or not to e-mail Gina with your story really fall with this question: is a picture with your child and/or the entire family possible? Logistically? Emotionally speaking? With permission from the family? Will it create problems for you? In your own family? At work? For your child’s family? At their work?

If you’re considering such an idea, you need to stop and discuss it with your child’s family first. Taking your story public is also taking a part of their story and, thus, their child’s story public as well. Be on the same page regarding this issue before making any decisions!

That said, if you are interested, please e-mail Gina at ginadcnj@gmail.com with a bit of information about your family, your adoption story and you as a person. (Remember to add information about you as a person; your title of birth mother does not fully define who you are!)

For those who are wary, as I said, I’ve been talking with Gina for the past few weeks. I feel confident that she can appropriately handle the task of conveying the complexities that adoption brings for a birth mother without portraying either birth mothers as evil or all adoptions as the most negative thing on the planet. I feel she will strike that important balance in a very intriguing way.

I look forward to seeing one of you in the magazine! Let us know!

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For more, read:

1. Article Touches on the Realities of Open Adoption.

2. Book Hits the Heart of Open Adoption.

3. Another Newspaper Article Misses the Mark.

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Photo Credit.

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