Giving Baby for Adoption at the Hospital [5 Steps]

If you have just given birth and realized that you cannot be a parent, adoption is an option for you. Contact an adoption professional now to get the services and support you need. 

For immediate support, you may want to call a 24-hour hotline, like 1-800-ADOPTION, to speak to a professional who:

We know you’re trying to make the best decision for you and your child, and it’s important to know that considering newborn baby adoption in the hospital and last-minute adoptions are common.

Many women in your situation wonder, “Can you decide to give your baby up for adoption at the hospital?”

First of all, the short answer is “yes.” You can absolutely place your baby for adoption at the hospital. Adoption is always an option, no matter how early or late you decide that it is the right path for you and your child. You can even choose adoption weeks or months after bringing your baby home.

Contact us today to get connected to a licensed adoption agency.

In the meantime, continue reading to learn more about how to give a baby up for adoption at the hospital.

What Is the Process for Giving Baby up for Adoption at the Hospital?

The process for completing a hospital adoption is similar to the process you would complete if you were choosing adoption earlier in your pregnancy — just on a shorter timeline.

Step 1: Choose Adoption

Only you know what is best for you and your child, so no one can make this choice for you. If you feel that a newborn baby adoption in the hospital is the best decision for the future, you can move forward and contact a licensed agency to help you move forward with an adoption plan to complete a hospital adoption.

Step 2: Contact an Adoption Agency Now

For this step, we recommend working with a larger adoption agency that has experience with last-minute hospital adoptions.

These licensed agencies for your hospital adoption work with more adoptive families prepared for a last-minute adoption, and many of these families will be willing to travel to you immediately.

Step 3: Choose Your Baby’s Adoptive Parents

Speaking of hopeful adoptive families, you will get to choose your child’s adoptive family, even for prospective birth mothers deciding on a last-minute hospital adoption. Through an experienced, trusted adoption professional, you can browse waiting adoptive family profiles and choose one that feels right for your child, all from your hospital room.

Your adoption professional can set up a call so that you can talk to the hopeful adoptive parents. If all goes well, then the adoptive family will immediately travel to you so that you can all complete the process of giving baby up for adoption at the hospital.

Step 4: Give up Baby at the Hospital

Once you’ve chosen the adoptive parents for your baby, they will travel to the hospital to meet you and your baby as soon as they can. How the hospital adoption goes exactly is up to you. Ahead of the adoptive parents’ arrival, you can speak with your adoption professional to determine whether you want to meet them in person or even interact with them in general.

If you need space and do not wish to see the adoptive parents, then this is absolutely an option for you.

When the adoptive family arrives and your state’s minimum waiting period has passed, you can grant your official consent to the adoption. This process varies depending on what state you live in, but you’ll be signing away your parental rights and responsibilities to the adoptive parents. This can be a difficult time but know that you are making an incredibly selfless sacrifice to give your child the best life possible.

Step 5: Adjust to Your Post-Placement Life as a Birth Mother

We always recommend some degree of openness in adoption whenever possible. This is because you can still maintain a relationship with your child and their adoptive family after you complete your hospital adoption. You can all stay in touch through photos, handwritten letters, phone calls, in-person visits or whatever you feel comfortable with. In an open adoption, finalization is never “goodbye.” It’s simply “see you later.”

Remember that prospective birth mothers can choose adoption during their hospital stay, and this means you can give a baby up for adoption in the hospital. You can even choose adoption for your baby after returning home from the hospital.

It is never too late to choose adoption for your child. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.