Creating an Adoption Plan: What You Can Decide and How the Process Works

Creating an adoption plan means designing a personal roadmap for how you want an adoption to look if you decide it is the right path for you and your baby. When you create an adoption plan, you decide who raises your child, what happens at the hospital, and how much contact you want in the future.

Exploring an adoption plan does not mean you have agreed to place your baby. You remain in complete control of your choices throughout pregnancy, and writing down what you want simply ensures your wishes are known, respected, and supported.

You Can Choose the Adoptive Family – and Decide What Matters to You

When creating an adoption plan, you can choose the prospective adoptive family you believe is right for your baby. Family profiles can help you compare screened families based on the qualities that matter most to you. You may consider:

• Family Structure: Whether you picture your child being raised by a couple, single parent or another family structure.
• Location: The state, region or type of community where you would like your child to grow up.
• Siblings: Whether you want your child to have siblings or be the first child in the family.
• Lifestyle and Values: A family’s daily life, interests, educational priorities, cultural background, values and religious beliefs.
• Openness Preferences: Whether a family’s expectations for pictures, messages, calls or visits align with the relationship you hope to have after placement.

Access to a larger range of carefully screened families can give you more opportunities to find prospective parents who reflect your preferences, rather than feeling limited to a small selection.

Your Adoption Plan Can Include the Relationship You Want After Placement

Your adoption plan can include your preferences for staying connected with your child and the adoptive family after placement. Open and semi-open adoption are flexible arrangements, so you can consider both the type and frequency of communication you want.

Open Adoption

Open adoption allows for direct communication between you and the adoptive family. Depending on what you agree on, your relationship could include:

• Pictures and updates
• Text messages or emails
• Phone or video calls
• Social media
• In-person visits

Semi-Open Adoption

Semi-open adoption allows for ongoing communication while maintaining more privacy. Pictures, letters, messages and other updates may be exchanged through an adoption professional or another agreed-upon method without sharing certain identifying information.

Deciding What Contact Looks Like

There is no single schedule that defines an open or semi-open adoption. You can discuss how often you would like contact, whether you hope to have visits and which forms of communication fit the relationship you want after placement.

These expectations may be included in a post-adoption contact agreement. Whether that agreement is legally enforceable, and under what circumstances, depends on state law.

You Can Make a Hospital Plan Before Your Baby Is Born

An adoption hospital plan outlines your preferences for labor, delivery and the time you spend at the hospital. Creating one ahead of time can help your adoption professional, hospital staff and the prospective adoptive family understand how you want that experience to look. Your hospital plan may include:

• Who Supports You: Who you want with you during labor and delivery.
• Adoptive Parent Involvement: Whether you want the prospective adoptive parents at the hospital and how involved you want them to be.
• Time With Your Baby: How much private time you want for holding, feeding and bonding with your baby.
• Hospital Arrangements: Who you want to hold your baby first and whether you prefer your baby to stay in your room or the nursery.
• Naming and Keepsakes: Your preferences for naming your baby, taking photos and keeping items such as footprints or hospital bracelets.
• Meeting the Adoptive Family: When and how you would like the prospective adoptive parents to meet your baby.

Your hospital plan should reflect your wishes for your delivery and hospital stay. An adoption professional can help communicate your preferences to the hospital and prospective adoptive family while keeping your needs at the center of the plan.

Financial Assistance Can Be Part of the Planning Conversation

State law may allow financial assistance with certain pregnancy-related living and medical expenses while you are considering adoption. Depending on your state, eligible expenses may include:

The types of expenses permitted, the amount of assistance available and how that assistance is provided vary by state. An adoption professional can explain what is allowed in your situation.

Financial assistance should not be treated as payment for your baby or your consent to adoption. Financial difficulty also does not mean adoption is the right choice for you.

Can You Change Your Mind After Creating an Adoption Plan?

Yes. Before you sign legal consent to adoption, you can generally reconsider the choices you have made in your adoption plan. This may include:

• Adoptive Family: Choosing a different prospective adoptive family or deciding you no longer want to move forward with the family you selected.
• Openness Preferences: Changing the type or amount of contact you would like after placement.
• Hospital Plan: Adjusting who you want involved, how much time you want with your baby and other hospital preferences.
• Adoption Decision: Reconsidering adoption and deciding to parent your baby.

Legal consent is separate from creating an adoption plan. Once consent has been signed, whether and under what circumstances it can be revoked depends on the laws of your state. An adoption attorney can explain when consent may be signed and what rules apply afterward.

Can You Create an Adoption Plan Late in Pregnancy or at the Hospital?

Yes. You can begin exploring adoption later in pregnancy or after arriving at the hospital. Starting the process later should not mean being rushed into decisions or giving up the opportunity to understand your choices. Even at the hospital, you should still have the opportunity to:

• Choose an Adoptive Family: Review screened prospective families and decide which family, if any, you want to consider.
• Make Hospital Decisions: Share your preferences for your delivery, time with your baby and the prospective adoptive family’s involvement.
• Consider Future Contact: Discuss what type of relationship you may want with your child and the adoptive family after placement.
• Receive Professional and Legal Guidance: Get clear information about the adoption process, your rights and the legal steps involved before making decisions.

A shorter timeline should not mean fewer meaningful choices. You should still be given the information and support you need to consider your options and make decisions about what happens next.

What If You’re Still Unsure Whether Adoption Is Right for You?

You do not need to be certain about adoption to explore what an adoption plan looks like. Asking questions, comparing options, and gathering information is a responsible way to understand what is realistic for your life and your future. As you weigh your options, it helps to consider:

• Parenting Resources: What community programs, housing assistance, family support, or government aid could help you parent if you choose to?
• Emotional Realities: How do you feel when imagining your daily life as a parent right now versus imagining your child growing up with an adoptive family you chose?
• Future Connection: Does the possibility of staying in touch through open adoption offer a sense of reassurance about your child’s well-being?
• Personal goals: What are your long-term educational, career, and personal priorities, and how does each path align with them?

Adoption should never be treated as an assumed conclusion. An experienced adoption professional will give you unbiased information, connect you with community parenting resources, and help you evaluate both parenting and adoption equally.

What to Look for in a Professional Helping You Create an Adoption Plan

The adoption professional you work with can affect how much information, choice and support you have while creating your plan. Look for a professional who helps you understand your options and build a plan around what matters to you. Key qualities to consider include:

• Individualized Planning: Your plan should reflect your preferences for the adoptive family, hospital experience, future contact and other decisions that matter to you.
• Meaningful Family Choice: Access to a range of prospective adoptive families gives you more opportunity to find a family aligned with what you want for your child.
• Carefully Screened Families: The prospective families you consider should have completed the required screening and home study process.
• Clear Financial Guidance: You should receive straightforward information about what financial assistance may be permitted and how it works in your state.
• Respect for Your Hospital Preferences: Your professional should help communicate your hospital plan and support the preferences you have established.
• Counseling and Emotional Support: Counseling can give you space to work through your feelings and decisions before and after placement.
• Independent Legal Guidance: Your own legal counsel can explain your rights, consent requirements and other legal decisions involved in the adoption.
• Post-Placement Support: Ask what counseling, communication support and other resources remain available after placement.

These qualities can help you maintain meaningful choices throughout the process while giving you practical support for the decisions involved in creating an adoption plan.

Create an Adoption Plan Based on What Matters to You

An adoption plan can reflect what matters to you, from the family you want for your child to your hospital experience, future contact and practical support during pregnancy.

Connect with an adoption professional to create a personalized adoption plan that reflects the choices you want to make.