Your pregnancy could be exciting, or frightening or a little bit of both. You may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility that you now feel in making a decision that will shape the rest of your life, and the life of your child. This may be causing you stress, and you may feel pressured to make a decision quickly about what to do for your child. Only you know what is best for you, but I want to let you know that you have time, and there are options and resources available that you might not know about.

You may be wishing that this hadn't happened at all, and wanting to simply not be pregnant right now. It is a big change to have happen unexpectedly, and its easy to worry about what others will think of you. But they don't have to live with the decision that you make regarding your baby, you do. And no matter what, you cannot go back, and become "unpregnant." You will remember this experience for the rest of your life, and you will always have been pregnant, the difference looking back will be dependant on what you decided about caring for your child.



You may feel like you can not possibly be a parent right now, no matter how much you might want to. This is understandable, parenting is a huge responsibility that continues for the rest of your life. It is the responsibility of physically caring for, teaching and disciplining someone else, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for at least the next 18 years of both of your lives. Instead of just taking care of yourself, and your own needs, you now have someone else to be thinking about and attending to all of the time. You are pregnant, that does not mean that you are necessarily ready to, or need to become a parent right now.

There are loving married couples that are just waiting for the opportunity to love and raise your child. Many women do not like to think about Adoption as an option because of the pain of giving their child up. I urge you to read on and consider that this is a choice that meets not only your needs, but also your child's needs, and the needs of a loving, but infertile couple who would be overjoyed to be raising the child that you have conceived.



How does Adoption meet my needs?

Placing your child with an adoptive couple can meet your needs in so many ways, and be such a blessing to you, as a birth mother. First of all, it can provide the peace of mind that you will have in knowing that your baby is in a stable and loving environment, with two parents who are not only capable, but completely overjoyed to be raising your child.

Secondly, adoption can give you your life back. Most likely, you were not planning on being a mother right now. I'm guessing that you have other plans and aspirations that may or may not include having a family and children someday. Although you are pregnant, this does not mean that you have to start your family now. Making an adoption plan for your child can provide for you the freedom to continue with your education and future career goals, and you can still get married and have children when you decide that you are ready.

Adoption can also provide for you the knowledge you have made the right, and responsible decision. It is a hard decision to make, but it can be the best if you feel you are not ready to be a parent. It is much more gratifying and heartwarming to tell friends and family who ask of your situation that you have placed your child into an adoptive family, than to tell them that you have had an abortion. You may be overwhelmed with the response when others tell you how glad they are that you did not choose to abort, which many young women today do. You may be surprised throughout your pregnancy at the number of people who, rather than being judgmental about your pregnancy, will be supportive of your responsible and loving decision.

Adoption meets your child's needs

Adoption not only meets your needs, it is meeting the best interests of your child as well. Many young women fear that they will love their child too much to give it up. This can sometimes be the more selfish viewpoint, since keeping your child is not always the best decision for the child's well-being. Compare for a moment, the care that your child would receive in a loving, stable home with two parents who are fully expecting and hoping to raise a child, vs. the care they would receive living with a young, possibly single mother who is not financially or emotionally ready to be a parent. The difference to the child would be outstanding. Rather than one young mother, struggling to raise a child she did not plan on, the child would have an older mother and father who are completely prepared and excited to raise it. You can choose to provide your child with a stable and loving married couple who are completely prepared to raise and care for him/her.

You can be a blessing to the adopting couple

One aspect of adoption that many people underestimate is the joy that a newborn can bring to a couple who cannot have children. It may be hard to imagine not being able to have children, since you have just conceived one without special effort. However, if you were married and wanted to have children, only to realize that you couldn't, it would be heartbreaking to have to wait and hope that someone would offer you their child to raise. This is the very situation that thousands of married couples are in right now. For every couple that adopts a healthy newborn, there are 40 other couples waiting to adopt. You can provide for this couple something that they could have could have never had without you, the chance to be parents. Knowing that you had this impact on another's life can often times wash away any anxiety you may feel about not raising your child yourself.