When you decide to adopt a baby, you should expect that you and your family will be undergoing stress. This will apply not only to you, but to the child as well. By knowing the kinds of stress involved in adoption, you might want to find ways to help you cope to make the adoption successful.
When you choose to foster a baby, there are two kinds of stress that are involved. These are pre-adoption and post-adoption stress.
Pre-adoption stress
This kind of stress is present before foster care occurs. Aside from the person or couple adopting the baby, the birth parents who will be surrendering their child for adoption could also undergo a lot of stress. This is given due to the fact that they may not want to put their baby for adoption. But oftentimes, because of certain circumstances, they have little or no choice in the situation. Being financially unstable or having no means to provide for their baby may be the reason why they have to surrender him/her for adoption.
For the foster parents, they may also undergo a stressful experience before adopting a baby or as they plan to do so. One of the things that can cause stress is the process itself. They will be required to spend time, money and effort to attain their goal. Before someone can adopt a child/baby, there are legal proceedings that need to be followed. This can also place stress to the foster parents.
Other than the ones mentioned above, foster parents can also suffer from emotional stress prior to adoption. This can be caused by certain "misunderstandings" and physiological deficiencies that have caused the need to adopt, like infertility, losses, and other issues.
Post-adoption stress
After fulfilling their goal, there are certain factors which can cause stress for the foster parents. The sudden changes of having to live with a baby will cause certain amount of stress. There will be changes in the living pattern in order to accommodate the new baby. This will also include having to provide for the baby's basic needs like food, clothing, baby gears, etc.
Other than the sudden changes that they have to go through, having achieved their goal in adopting a baby can also re-open certain question and sensitive issues. They may have to face the pains of their losses, issues about infertility and other things.
If they are unable to cope with post-adoption stress, they may result to post-adoption depression. Unlike postpartum depression that most, if not all, mothers undergo which is caused by sudden changes in their hormonal levels, post-adoption stress or depression is more about the emotional aspect. This can include their fears, sadness, anger, sense of loss, etc.
If you feel like you have some things that are still unresolved, it would be best if you seek for help to overcome these issues before going through with an adoption. This can allow you to better cope with adopting a baby and handle the stress that comes along with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment