Today’s guest blogger is a current MSW IV-E Fellow.
Freelance writer Kevyn Burger wrote, “Minnesota teens get new perspective on adoption” for the Star Tribune on June 1, 2015. In this article, the author discusses how high school classrooms of Minnesota teenagers across the state are having the opportunity to converse with panels of birth mothers on their experience with adoption as a part of Adoption Option Council of Minnesota’s volunteer programming. Adoption Option Council of Minnesota is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-religious organization driven by volunteers and focused on redefining adoption and introducing people to the idea that adoption is a choice for an unplanned pregnancy (Adoption Option Council of Minnesota, 2015). This article shares snippets of birth mothers’ stories, and reminds of the stigma that was rampant years ago, and some of which persists to this day, for birth mothers who created adoption plans for their children. These panels also showcase strong women who had to make difficult choices in creating an adoption plan which serves to normalize adoption and support birth mothers.
The strengths of the article are that this group of birth mothers are helping reduce the stigma that birth parents may feel about adoption. They are sharing valuable information to large groups of teenagers who may themselves experience an unplanned pregnancy or even have a friend experience it someday. Hearing from people who have been through adoption helps demystify the process and shed light on some of the different outcomes of adoption today.
Every birth mother experiences a unique set of circumstances surrounding adoption. This panel included a number of mothers who have found their experiences surrounding adoption to have redeeming factors in it for them or have found healing in reuniting with their child and their adoptive families. Other birth mothers who had a more difficult time with creating an adoption plan for their child may not have been represented in this panel. This organization also mobilizes panels of adoptive parents and adults who were adopted, and I would be very interested in seeing birth fathers participate in this panel and share their unique perspective on adoption as well as adopted adults. It is important for audiences to hear the full spectrum of real experiences. Of course, covering perspectives from all of the different people touched by adoptions would have been out of the scope of this article, but I do believe that it is important to share varying perspectives on adoption to give young adults all of the information.
Works Cited:
About AOCM. (2015). Adoption Option Council of Minnesota. Retrieved from adoptionoptionmn.org
Burger, K. (2015, June 1). Minnesota teens get new perspective on adoption. Star Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-teens-get-new-perspective-on-adoption/305521701/