Telling family and friends about your adoption plan for your babyThe idea of sharing that you are pregnant and considering adoption can be a scary thing. You don’t have to tell anyone (except your baby’s birth father) if you don’t want to. All of the services offered to you are confidential. Take your time to decide whether you are going to share this important news with your family and friends. Ask yourself if it will benefit you in the long run by revealing your news.

The birth father will most likely have to be contacted regarding your pregnancy. It is always easier if the birth father signs a waiver agreeing to the adoption. Your adoption professional will work with an adoption attorney to determine if his rights can be terminated. The attorney can inform the birth father of the pregnancy and let him know of his options.

What about your friends? Do you feel that they will be supporting and non-judgmental? You should be prepared that they might not respond in the way you expect. Some might be happy for you and encourage you to raise the baby on your own. Remember, your friends will not be with you every moment. The expense and hard work of parenting would fall squarely on your shoulders. Make sure that whatever decision you make is not swayed by the opinions of others. Keep those friends close that are loving and supportive (whatever your decision).

If you choose to share this news with your parents, it is better to share early on in the process. Once you have decided on a plan for your future, sit down with them and calmly discuss your situation. Let them know you have come up with a plan. Ask them for emotional support and understanding. If they react with anger, give them time and space to digest the information. This news is likely to be shocking for them. A soft and respectful voice will go a long way to smoothing over ragged emotions.

Do remember that sharing with family at the last minute (like at the hospital when you have just had a baby) can be a very dramatic and intense experience. Many women find this just adds to their emotions and created additional problems. Including family saying they will help with the baby only to find that once home the offered support is missing. Be cautious before picking up the phone to share that you have had a baby with family and friends that have not known about your pregnancy along. For those loved ones you allow into your confidence, let them uphold you and support you with your adoption choice.

Don’t feel that you are in this alone! Your adoption coordinator will be there to support you every step of the way. They can provide guidance or just a sympathetic ear. Adoption is a loving choice; surround yourself with people who can support adoption for your baby.

Learn about writing a letter to your adopted childAs a birth mother, you’re able to give your child the gift of a love letter, that shares your feelings of hope and love. This is a beautiful and treasured gift that only you can provide.

“I don’t want my child to hate me for choosing adoption” is a fear that many birth parents express. Writing a special letter directly to her child can help any birth mother at this time of high emotions and often heartache. Through the letter, the birth mother is revealing her true loving feelings for her child.

You may begin the love letter by telling your child your hopes for their lives. These hope may be a significant reason you chose to make an adoption plan. Share the care with which you took to make sure they had the type of family you wished to provide. Also, you can take this occasion to explain that you did not choose adoption because you did not care about them, you chose adoption because you care so much that you want to provide more for them than you are able.

If other members of your family are struggling with your decision or difficult emotions, they may also want to write a letter. This is an chance for them to convey to your child that he or she is always loved from afar.

It’s a good idea to make copies of the letters for your special memory books or boxes. If you feel a pang of heartache in future years about the child you placed for adoption, re-reading these letters may help you.

If you have an open adoption relationship with your child’s adoptive parents, you might ask them to give your child this love letter. Your special letter is your hope and love on paper expressed to your child and will be a treasure for your child and the adoptive parents for many years to come.

It can be hard to find the words to accurately reflect what is in your heart, so some birth mothers feel as though they cannot write a letter like this. Please don’t let your words and feelings go unwritten or unspoken. Stories and pictures the adoptive parents tell your child will pale when compared to the heartfelt words that you can share, describing your feelings and your decision to choose adoption.

This is a beautiful way to leave a legacy for your child, sharing the hope you have for them through adoption. To consider submitting your letter to an upcoming book titled Adoption Love Stories, please visit AdoptionLoveStories.com.

Find Parent Profiles online has tons of adoptive familiesWhen it comes to selecting a family for your baby or child, you will ultimately have the last say as the birth mother. The hopes, concerns, and aspirations that you have for your child are always important and heard. As you consider adoptive parents for your baby or child, you may be seeking an adoptive family of a specific race. At Find Parent Profiles, you can view tons waiting families of all races.

FindParentProfiles.com has adoptive families of all races, backgrounds, and ages who are ready and available to adopt your baby now. Maybe you’re considering making an adoption plan for your toddler, older child, or children. Find Parent Profiles is here to help you find out about the many options available to you in open adoption.

When a couple is looking to adopt a child, they make a commitment to give that child a healthy and enjoyable upbringing. Their promise to care for the child goes beyond the daily necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. They are dedicated to helping that child to become a positive and successful member of society. An adoptive couple is looking to open their hearts, home, and lives to an unborn child, such as yours, has an abundance of wonderful things to offer that child. In general, they are often well-educated, successful in their careers, open-minded, and very strong people.

As you select an adoptive family to care for and raise your child, you are also making a statement that you want your child to be emotionally prepared to compete in this world, which will contribute to his or her long-term success. The majority of adoptive couples are open to staying in touch with you after the adoption, through letters, emails, photos, and visits.

As a birth mother, you want to give your child the best. What better thing to give him or her than an awesome family that will embrace and celebrate life, culture, and love! Visit FindParentProfiles.com today!

Is there such a thing as a smart phone app for birth control?Q: I use a period tracker app on my smart phone. I only had sex twice this last cycle and both times were on days that it said I wasn’t fertile. I’m now pregnant and I don’t understand how this app could have been wrong. Please help.

A: Period predictor and tracker apps are free, easy, and a must-have for many smart phone equipped women. They help track symptoms, period duration, anticipated start dates, and much more!

What they cannot effectively predict is fertility, especially if you are using it for birth control. Apps cannot predict how long sperm will live, how long it takes your egg to travel down the fallopian tube, accurate ovulation, or even a fertile period that is anything more than a calculated guess.

Our bodies are each very unique. Certainly the timing of a women’s cycle is somewhat predictable, but relying on an app (or what amounts to a computer program) to determine what’s going on in our bodies without any biological input is a mathematical guess at best. It simply cannot accurate predict what is going on with the limited information (usually dates) that you input.

Consider this; you are standing at a very busy intersection with heavy traffic. You need to cross the street and you have two choices: First, you push the button on the pedestrian console and watch (and wait) for the light to change, indicating it is safe to cross. Or, you have just downloaded this fabulous app that is smart enough to let you know when it is safe to cross the street based. You are on the curb, what do you do? Look at the light, street, and traffic or look at your phone? Which do you trust more to keep you safe from a car that is running a red light – your own senses or your phone?

It’s the same when attempting to use a period tracking app for birth control. Are you really going to trust your phone to keep you from getting pregnant?

I’m sorry that you have had to learn the hard way that there is no app that functions as birth control. Anytime you have sexual intercourse you risk getting pregnant, no matter what your smart phone tells you.

Your baby's development during pregnancyThe development of a baby in a woman’s womb is a fascinating process! While most women don’t feel the presence of ‘life’ inside their womb until a couple of months after conception, the baby is already growing by leaps and bounds even in the first few weeks of pregnancy! Here are some interesting facts about a baby’s development inside a woman’s body:

Heartbeat: The baby’s heart begins to pump blood as early as 21 days after conception. You can hear the baby’s heartbeat at the seventh or eighth week using an ultrasonic stethoscope.

Brain: The baby’s brain begins to function as early as eight weeks into gestation or six weeks after conception. Brain waves have been recorded at 40 days through an EEG (Electroencephalogram)

Other organs: Did you know that the fetus’s eyes, ears, and respiratory system begin to form just four weeks after fertilization? In fact, by eight weeks (or two months), all of the baby’s body systems are present. At eight weeks the baby’s stomach begins to produce gastric juice necessary for digestion.

Teeth: The baby’s milk-teeth buds (all 20 of them!) are present at six and a half weeks

Fingernails: You will be surprised to know that the baby’s fingerprints are fully formed by the fourth month of gestation and fingernails are present by 11 to 12 weeks. Even eyelashes are formed by 16 weeks!

Movement: The baby can make some movement as early as the ninth or 10th week. The baby can squint, swallow, move the tongue, and even make a tight fist at this stage!

Breath: At 3 months, the baby can breathe fluid and will continue to do so until birth. Since the baby obtains oxygen through the mother’s umbilical cord, he or she will not drown by breathing the fluid inside the womb. It is this breathing that helps to develop the respiratory systems.

In short, the baby is very much a life even a few days after conception and is not something with gills and a tail or just a random group of cells! In fact, it makes more sense to see the baby as the second patient, the first one being the mother. In other words, the unborn baby must be given the same amount of care and preference that is given to the pregnant mother.

Unfortunately, many women are considering abortion as a solution to unplanned pregnancy not knowing all of these facts. If you are considering this, I want you to know that there are better alternatives to abortion. Your baby is alive.

Tara had gone in to a clinic hoping to terminate her pregnancy through a surgical abortion. She was only a teenager and was terrified to tell her mom and dad that she was pregnant, especially because her dad was the pastor of the local church. She thought abortion would be easier than enduring the guilt and shame that would come with being a pregnant teen.

Once she saw her baby on the ultrasound, she realized it wasn’t just a mass of cells. It was formed and organized. And while it didn’t look like a fully-formed baby just yet, it was clear to see that it was on its way to becoming something. It was at that moment that Tara realized that ending her baby’s life simply to avoid telling her parents was not the answer.

After a tearful conversation, they began looking into adoption as an option. Tara chose a couple in California to adopt her baby boy. She liked the fact that they were open to letting her come visit once a year and be part of her son’s life. Christopher is now 5 years old and knows Tara is his tummy mommy.

Parenting or adoption can both be ways to give your baby the life he or she is already living. With open adoption, you can even remain a part of your child’s life, watching them grow with parents that you chose for them. There is so much help available if you can just reach out and take it.

Your baby is counting on you to make the best decision.