Glossary of Terms Related to Adoption

All About Adoption Consulting can educate you on all types of adoption. We are not an adoption agency but rather a supportive and education resource. Listed below are terms that you may encounter.

Open Adoption - Adoption in which identifying information is shared between birth and adoptive parents and there is a plan for continued contact after the placement is made.

Mediated Open Adoption - is planned communication between birth and adoptive families while the child is growing up, spelled out in a written agreement. The agreement is mediated by a representative or your agency or a law firm who is sensitive to the issues for both sides.

Semi-Open Adoption - Birth and adoptive families who stay in contact by way of an intermediary as opposed to direct contact; they may or may not have exchanged identifying information.

Openness - in adoption refers to various forms of communication between birth parents and adoptive parents, such as an exchange of pictures and letters, meeting but not having ongoing contact, or meeting on a first name basis.

Open Placement - the birth and adoptive family meet at the beginning of the adoption; may or may not exchange identifying information; have no commitment of ongoing contact.

Independent Adoption - is an adoption that is carried out often with no counseling provided for anyone. The child is simply placed with the adoptive family.

Closed or Confidential Adoption - the birth parents and adoptive parents do not meet, do not share identifying information and do not keep in contact.

Triad ( the adoption triangle) - the three categories of people directly involved in adoption: the birth parents, the adoptee, and the adoptive parents. Glossary of Individuals involved in Adoption

Birth Mother - (birth parent, biological parent) - refers to the person who gave birth to a baby. It is a preferred term as opposed to natural mother or real mother, causing implication that if the birth mother makes an adoption plan the adoptive parents are unreal or unnatural.

Birth Father - (birth parent, biological parent) - refers to the male responsible for the conception of a child. The child born to the woman who was impregnated by this person will have the genetic components of the birth father and the birth mother.

Legal Parent - (mother/father) - refers to the woman to whom a child was born and the father of the child who is married to the mother or has filed a notice of intent to claim paternity.

Putative Father - (alleged) - refers to the person who is thought to be the biological father of a child but has not acknowledged this fact nor filed an intent to determine that he is the biological father.

Permanent Surrender / Relinquishment - refers to birth parents legally signing over their child to an . Until the child is placed for adoption, the program has custody of the child. Other words used are release of surrender.

Open Adoption Continuum:

1. Closed Adoptions
2. Correspondence through the , non-identifying
3. Correspondence directly between adoptive and birth family
4. Visits facilitated by in neutral site, non-identifying
5. Visits in home, identifying info shared