Guide to Adoption for Health Care & Counseling Professionals
Pros•To the point
•Debunks common myths
•Easy to read
Cons•The word "birthmother" used pre-placement
The Bottom Line - Good, concise information for pregnancy counselors about adoption to help correct any misperceptions they may have themselves, and make an accurate presentation of adoption as a positive option.
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Description
•Created by the Institute for Adoption Education and Adoptions Together, Inc.
•35 pages, booklet
•Includes additional Web-based resources
•Walks through counseling strategies, starting with the decision to parent or not.
Review - Guide to Adoption for Health Care & Counseling Professionals
When pregnancy counselors talk about adoption as an option in a crisis or unintended pregnancy, are they bringing personal biases or outdated information to the table? The purpose of this small, easy-to-read guide is to give counselors information, including a brief overview of adoption history, the evolution of new practices and social attitudes, and methods of presenting information to pregnant women and their families, with sensitivity and accuracy. Counselors are traditionally buried in reading materials, so the booklet's clear language and to-the-point information should make it a welcome addition to any counselor's ready reference bookshelf.
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© Nancy S Ashe
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Comments
It seems to me that when we discuss adoption sometimes the "biological mothers" (for lack of a better term pre-placement or adoption decision) get lost in the shuffle. While I admire professionals that try to get the process of adoption started as early as they possibly can so there is a smooth transition for the child, I think sometimes there needs to be more sensitivity when it comes to counseling for those parents considering making the adoption decision, and certainly often more of an unbiased attitude on the part of professionals. I think it's easy to encourage a prospective adoptive parent that adoption is a noble and sound decision, but much harder to see how parenting a child can also be a noble and sound decision. It seems to me that when there is doubt on the part of biological parents as to whether they can take care of their child appropriately when he/she enters the world, the first instinct is to assume that just because there is this doubt it shows an unfitness on the part of the parents, when really many people, even those that end up being conscientious parents that provide an excellent life for their child, have similar doubts. I definitely think it's hard to be unbiased when it comes to pre-adoption counseling, but I think it would be nice to see more complete care for these very special "biological" parents pre-adoption decision, and would help the whole adoption world immensely.
Posted by: avalanche at 11/10/2005 11:42 AM
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