Birthmother Hotline (800) 264-2229
Domestic
Please review the “Basic Requirements” page. It will answer many of your questions.
When you are choosing an adoption agency or considering domestic adoption, please consider the following:
- The “Adoption Horror Stories” (you’ve heard them on the news and seen them on the Lifetime channel) rarely, if ever, involve LICENSED, PROFESSIONAL ADOPTION AGENCIES.
- MANY TIMES, MOST BIRTHMOTHERS WILL REQUEST, AND ADOPTIVE PARENTS PROMISE, PHOTOS AND UPDATES FOR AT LEAST ONE YEAR BY ADOPTIVE FAMILIES. IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE COMPLYING WITH BIRTHMOHTER AGREEMENTS, PLEASE CONSIDER STATING THAT YOU WILL ACCEPT ONLY A “CLOSED” ADOPTION. THIS MAY SLOW YOUR PROCESS, BUT HONESTY WITH BIRTHMOTHERS IS VITAL.
- The risks in adoption are drastically reduced when the adoption is handled by a reputable agency: check the agencies out through the Department of Human Services, the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General or the Secretary of State in your home state. NBICFS invites you to contact these agencies in Mississippi and will furnish you with contact information upon request.
- Legitimate agencies do not make illegal or unethical payments to birthparents.
- Birthparents are offered counseling before and after the adoption by quality adoption programs.
- Diligent search must be accomplished for birthfathers if they are not an active part of the process.
- Adoption is not about “finding a baby” for an adoptive family, but rather about “finding a stable and loving home” for the baby.
- Birthmothers are brave and unselfish young women who are making adoption plans. They are not “giving away” their baby. They choose an “adoption plan” so they can provide, through the adoptive family, what they cannot provide themselves.
- ALL NEW BEGINNING’S BIRTHMOTHERS ARE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT AT ALL TIMES. IF, AT ANY POINT DURING THE ADOPTIVE PROCESS, AN ADOPTVE FAMILY ACTS INAPPROPRIATELY TOWARD A BIRTHMOTHER OR DISREGARDS HER RIGHTS, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO TRANSFER THE CASE TO ANOTHER FAMILY.
- Adoptive parents are expected to “normalize” adoption in their home beginning with the home study process. I.e., the fact that a child is adopted is not to be hidden as if it were some type of embarrassment.