You’re considering adopting a newborn!
Doulas are rapidly becoming known for their clinically proven ability to provide comprehensive emotional and physical support to the laboring mother and lower unnecessary interventions and increase overall maternal satisfaction in the birth experience. Here is a link to see some of these sources.
Doulas interested in offering their training to adoption birth experiences can provide important support just for you.
The adoption doula will provide you with private birth education so that you won’t have to learn about pregnancy and childbirth in a public group setting. The education given is specific to your situation. She will prepare you for the situation in which the pregnant mother allows and is made through the adoption plan set forth, including: your presence in the birth room, your involvement during the birth, what happens immediately after the birth, and initial postpartum support. If the mother has decided on adoption after the birth, the doula will provide you with at least one postpartum visit, to help navigate the many questions new families face, including: feeding, diaper change questions, health/vaccine/circumcision questions, bonding, and more. If the mother has moved to a parenting plan, the doula will provide you with one visit to discuss the feelings you may have, and outline what the contract you two have built means for the next pregnancy in your adoption journey.
There is the option that the pregnant mother will be receptive to also receiving support from your doula; specific boundaries and expectations in this situation will be set forth by your doula. It is extremely important to know that allowing your doula to support the pregnant mother through her birth experience does not guarantee that the mother will go forth with an adoption decision. What it does, however, is allow for the mother to experience totally unbiased and unconditional support. Doulas offer pregnancy and birth support, and this is not conditional upon an adoption decision. This gives the mother the freedom to explore her choices and work through their needs with the information and support the adoption doula has. Mothers who use these resources provided by the doulas who use the Adoption Doula Handbook are, because of the freedom to work through every aspect of needs and concerns, more confident in the parenting or adoption decision that they do decide to make. To learn more about how an adoption doula can benefit the pregnant mother, click the birth mothers link.
Schedule a meeting with an adoption doula to explore the options within your unique adopting experience. She will listen to your story, explain what services she can provide, and work on a contract with you that will include services, boundaries, fees, and possible reimbursement options for you. Make sure your doula has an asterisk (*) before her name, as this means that she has the Adoption Doula Handbook, and click on her name to learn more about her beliefs and her skills.