What is Open Adoption?

“Imagine never knowing who your parents are, what they look like, why you were given up, if you have siblings … or if they’re thinking about you, too.”

All adoption involves profound loss, but open adoption can help ease the associated grief. Open adoption is an agreement between the birth parents and the adoptive family to maintain an agreed-upon level of openness, communication, and/or contact after adoption finalization. It can range from phone calls, emails, and exchanging photos to ongoing direct contact and visits. Although these “Post-Adoption Contact Agreements” aren’t legally enforceable in Wisconsin, overwhelming evidence tells us they significantly benefit all parties in adoption – most of all the child.

Benefits to the Adoptee May Include:

  • A stronger sense of self and identity

  • Meeting the core human need of knowing their own story

  • Reducing painful feelings of abandonment

  • Ability to ask questions and receive information directly

  • The comfort of having contact information to reach out when needed

  • Access to medical and genetic histories

  • Agency to shape relationships with birth family as they grow

  • A wider circle of love and support

Despite the many benefits, openness in adoption doesn’t always guarantee a smooth road. Complex relationships and emotions can be hard to navigate, and sometimes compelling reasons exist to limit communication or contact.  Still, even with challenges, open adoption provides the foundation of truth that children need to be whole.

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