Steps of Adoption: What to Expect
Thinking about adoption? Start with clear answers.
If you’re pregnant and considering adoption, understanding the process can help you decide what feels right for you and your baby. You don’t need to make a commitment to ask questions.
A Caring Connection offers personal support and connects you with licensed adoption professionals who can guide you through the adoption process.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Steps of Adoption: What to Expect
Thinking about adoption? Start with clear answers.
If you’re pregnant and considering adoption, understanding the process can help you decide what feels right for you and your baby. You don’t need to make a commitment to ask questions.
A Caring Connection offers personal support and connects you with licensed adoption professionals who can guide you through the adoption process.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Step 1
Understand Your Pregnancy Options
Unexpected pregnancy can bring a lot of questions. Take time to explore your options—parenting, adoption, or abortion—and consider your circumstances, resources, and wishes.
If you want to learn about adoption, we’re here with honest information and judgment-free support. Asking questions does not commit you to placing your baby for adoption.
Step 2
Talk With Someone Who Will Listen
Start wherever you feel comfortable. Call, text, or complete our contact form to ask questions about adoption and share as much or as little as you wish.
Talking with us is free, and there’s no obligation to move forward. We’ll explain how your information is handled and when it may be shared with the adoption professionals involved.
Step 3
Create Your Adoption Plan
Your adoption plan begins with what matters to you. Discuss your preferences for the adoptive family, your hospital experience, and future communication.
You can explore open, semi-open, and closed adoption. The licensed professionals involved will explain how each arrangement works, what is available, and whether contact agreements are legally enforceable in your state.
Step 4
Choose and Get to Know an Adoptive Family
Review family profiles through the licensed adoption professionals involved and ask questions about the people you’re considering for your baby.
If you wish, you can get to know a family through calls, messages, or meetings. You can discuss your hopes for your child and the relationship you would like to have after placement.
Step 5
Understand Your Adoption Rights
You deserve to understand the legal process before signing anything. We help you identify questions to discuss with the licensed agency or attorney involved.
Learn when adoption consent can be signed, whether it can be withdrawn, and when it becomes legally binding. These rules vary by state, so your adoption professionals should explain the requirements that apply to your situation.
Learn more on our Know Your Rights page.
Step 6
Connect With Support During Pregnancy
You deserve someone who checks in, listens, and helps you find resources throughout your pregnancy.
Depending on your circumstances and state law, assistance with approved pregnancy-related expenses—such as housing, food, or transportation—may be available. The licensed professionals involved can explain what assistance is permitted and how it works.
Step 7
Plan Your Hospital Experience
Talk through your wishes before delivery so the people supporting you understand what matters to you.
Your hospital plan can include who you would like present, time with your baby, the adoptive family’s involvement, and photos or keepsakes. Your care team and adoption professionals can help coordinate those preferences, taking medical needs and hospital policies into account.
Step 8
Navigate Placement and What Comes Next
There’s no single way to feel about placement. You may feel sadness, relief, uncertainty, love—or several emotions at once. You deserve time, clear information, and support.
If you decide to proceed, the licensed professionals involved will guide you through consent and placement according to applicable state law. Signing consent, placement, and finalizing an adoption are separate parts of the process.
After placement, we can help connect you with counseling, support groups, and other resources. Any agreed communication with the adoptive family will follow the arrangements made with the professionals involved.