Suffering From Grief? Find Help and Guidance Here

The decision to place your baby up for adoption is a hard one, but it is usually one made with the baby's best interests in mind. Once you have made this decision, it's a good idea to seek out birth parent counseling services in your area. Many adoption centers offer these sessions, or they can recommend a local therapist who does. But why are these sessions so important? Here's a look.

1. Counseling will help you respond to the queries of others.

One of the hardest things during pregnancy can be having others ask you about the baby with the presumption that you're keeping it. Your aunt may ask if the baby room is ready yet, or someone you pass on the street may ask you what you'll name the child. These questions can hurt if you're not prepared to answer them. In counseling, you will learn how to respond to such questions honestly, respectfully, and in a way that protects your own emotions and privacy.

2. Counseling will give you confidence in your decision.

You've made the decision to put your baby up for adoption, but now you need to be confident and firm in that decision. In counseling, you will learn a bit about how to stand up for yourself and how to honor your own logic and reasoning. This will help you to stop feeling guilty or embarrassed about your choice and to trust that you are a capable decision-maker.

3. Counseling prepares you for birth.

Giving birth is challenging for all mothers, but it has its own element of difficulty for birth parents who know it means the end of their time with the baby. In counseling, you will learn more about birth, especially from an emotional perspective, so you are less prone to this emotional turmoil as the birth approaches.

4. Counseling helps you verbalize your emotions.

You're bound to feel a wide range of emotions during this time. Putting them into words can be really tough, especially if the people in your life are not overly supportive. Still, your feelings deserve to be heard — and a counselor is just the person to hear them. This is an environment where you can verbalize your emotions fully, freely, and without judgment, which can really help you come to terms with how you feel.

Counseling is a really important part of the birth parent experience and one that can make the subsequent years of your life so much easier.