Open Adoption: Communicating with Birth Parents

Open Adoption can involve staying in touch with a child's birth parents in a variety of ways. As a birth mother, you might have an interest in knowing how you're is adjusting to the new family, and as adoptive parents, you're probably feeling reluctant to severing all ties with the child's biological family. These are the two main reasons why more and more people opt for open and not closed adoption. So if you have an open adoption- what's the best method of communicating with the birth parents? Here's what you can do!

In Person:

Talking to the birthparents has a couple of advantages over the other forms of communication. First of all, it lets the child develop a relationship with their biological parents, which is very hard to achieve over the phone or with the help of text messages. Second, it helps you avoid misunderstandings.

Talking on the Phone:

Although it doesn't allow you to create strong emotional bonds, talking on the phone still has plenty of advantages. It will surely help the child develop some kind of a relationship with their birth parents, but it'll also serve as a way for you to keep the other party informed. It's also a very good way of communicating when there are circumstances standing in the way of seeing each other.

Through Social Media:

Social media platforms are becoming increasingly useful when it comes to sharing information about your life with birth families. If for some reason you can't or don't want to communicate with the birth parents in person, you can always opt for contacting them on Facebook. This method has an added benefit of making it easier for you to share photos and similar content.

Through Emails or Texts:

Some adoptive parents choose to communicate with the birth parents through emails and texts. Although it's not the ideal solution, it serves the purpose of staying in touch and keeping the other party informed to update the birth family. Even in dynamics of open adoption families, there are some families that are closer than others. There are some birthmothers that want more continuous reporting than others in consideration of their own emotional well-being after an adoption. Email communication might be ideal for messaging a birthmother in an open adoption that elects for more privacy with her communication.