Everything You Need to Know About Making a Semi-Open Adoption Plan as a Birth Mother

Now that you have chosen adoption as the right option for you, it is time to reach out to your adoption agency and begin making your adoption plan. The first step to making your adoption plan is selecting what type of adoption best suits you. Are you interested in an open, closed, or semi-open adoption? What type of adoption you choose decides how involved you will be in your baby’s life in the future.

The Different Types of Adoption Available for Birth Mothers in Missouri

In order to understand what a semi-open adoption is, first we have to know what open adoption and closed adoption each mean. Open adoption usually consists of staying in touch directly, via in-person visits and planned meetings that follow a set of predetermined guidelines you and the adoptive parents have agreed on. A closed adoption is when there is no contact beyond the baby’s birth and placement with the adoptive family. Semi-open adoption falls somewhere in the middle between open and closed adoption.

A semi-open adoption is when there is no identifying information shared, but you still maintain various forms of contact with your baby as he or she grows up. Due to its very nature, semi-open adoption typically consists of more nonverbal, written communication, like letters and emails. Usually this happens through third party mediation. At our adoption agency, we use a secure and confidential online portal called ChildConnect. This will allow you to communicate with your adoptive parents and receive updates about your child from a safe and protected distance. provided by your adoption agency. That is exactly why Adoption Choices of Missouri is here to help you with your semi-open adoption plan.

Top 3 Reasons Why a Semi-Open Adoption Plan may be Right for You as a Birth Mother

1. More privacy. Maybe your job or your life requires a certain level of anonymity. Maybe you are just a more private person. It is completely natural to want to maintain some discretion when placing your baby for adoption. Whatever the reason behind your desire for privacy, perhaps you still don’t want the complete loss of contact that comes with a closed adoption. That means that semi-open adoption may be right for you.

2. A sense of control. If you are the type of person who ignores a phone call in order to reply with a carefully constructed text instead, then a semi-open adoption may be a good fit for you. Not only does keeping contact limited to written communication help give you a sense of control, but it also allows you to take your time and decide what you want to say more thoughtfully. Birth mothers are always in control over how much future involvement they would like to participate in, but a semi-open adoption allows for a little more control when setting the ground rules of how much contact is or is not ok.

3. Less guilt or grief. No matter what, there is almost always some grief and guilt over the loss of parenthood after adoption. In fact, we even provide post-placement mental health and support counseling for birth mothers for this exact reason. Maybe you feel like an open adoption is too much of a painful reminder, but a closed adoption isn’t enough for you.

How to Get Started on Your Semi-Open Adoption Plan as a Birth Mother Today

After you have contacted our adoption agency and made an appointment with your adoption caseworker, please make sure to tell them that you are interested in a semi-open adoption plan as a birth mother. They will be able to provide you with some more basic information and answer any questions you may have more directly.

Another great way to get started preparing for your semi-open adoption plan is to practice writing an introductory letter to leave with your baby. This is a letter that basically introduces who you are and why you chose adoption. Once your baby is old enough to understand that he or she was adopted, they will have many personal questions that the adoptive family simply won’t have all the answers to.

An introductory letter is a great way to explain why adoption is the right choice for all of you and address any questions or concerns you think your baby will have one day. This is your chance to help him or her understand that this difficult decision was the best one possible, because it was a decision made out of love for their benefit and to provide them with the best opportunities in life.

An adoption plan also means a list of guidelines for future interactions. Think about the distant future, picture where you are five, ten, fifteen years from now. Do you want the possibility to eventually turn your semi-open adoption into a fully open adoption one day? Do you want to stick to only written communication through a mediator, or would you like to meet your baby once he or she is grown up? These are all different guidelines that you and your adoption caseworker can work into your semi-open adoption plan.

Let Our Adoption Agency Answer All of Your Questions about Making a Semi-Open Adoption Plan as a Birth Mother

Do you have more questions about semi-open adoption or making a semi-open adoption plan? Don’t wait or hesitate to call Adoption Choices of Missouri today so that your adoption specialist can get started answering all of your questions as quickly as possible. Don’t you want as much help and time available to plan everything and write your introductory letter? The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can get to work helping you make your semi-open adoption plan.

Adoption Choices of Missouri serves birth parents statewide and beyond, please call us or text us to learn more! Call us toll free at 877-903-4488 or, in Missouri call or text us at 1-816-527-9800

Meet the Author: Kelly Felix is a graduate from the University of New Orleans. She holds a BA in English as well as a BA in Sociology. Her English concentration is in journalism, and her specialties in sociology are gender studies and environmental sociology.

When she isn’t voraciously guzzling coffee or devouring books, Kelly can be found either bent over a canvas working on her art or at her computer playing video games. She has hands-on classroom teaching experience from her time working as a substitute teacher for Kelly Services. Kelly also completed an in-house editorial internship at Pelican Publishing Company, and she finished the goal internship program at Green Light New Orleans. Kelly generally exists in a state of suspended disbelief, but when she’s not there she resides in New Orleans.