Blue Water Pregnancy
Care Center


810.985.HOPE (4673)


730 Griswold St.
Port Huron, MI 48060

email: bwpcc.director@gmail.com

Other Helpful Links:

www.StandUpGirl.com  
www.OptionLine.org

Adoption & Parenting

Adoption

In today's adoptions, you have lots of choices. You can know your child and be a part of your child's life. You can have the peace of knowing your child is loved and cared for by the couple you choose.  It may be the best choice for you and a loving choice for your baby. Realize that you are not alone. Each year over 50,000 women in America make this choice.

You have lots of choices with adoption. Will it be open or closed? Will it be private or will you use an agency? You are in the driver's seat when making an adoption plan and there are lots of things to consider if you:

• Don't want an abortion and aren't ready to be a parent
• Want to provide your child with a 2-parent family
• Want to provide your child emotional and financial stability.

Some Facts to Consider for Young, Unmarried Moms

• Young, unmarried women who make an adoption plan are more likely to subsequently marry than those who choose single parenting. 1
• Young, unmarried women who choose adoption consistently attain higher levels of income and education than their peers who choose single parenting. 1

• Only 20% of unmarried mothers receive child support from the child's father. 9
• Unmarried mothers who place their children for adoption generally obtain a higher education, better employment and are less likely to repeat or abort another out-of-wedlock pregnancy. 1
• Twenty-two percent of children in single-parent families live in poverty, compared to two percent of children in two-parent families, including two percent of children in adoptive families. 8
• Over 70 percent of juveniles in state reform institutions are from fatherless homes. The lack of a father is more important than any other factor, including income, for predicting criminal behavior. 9
• Teenage marriages are three times more likely to result in separation or divorce than non-teen marriages. 3
• Unmarried mothers who keep their children are more likely to have serious employment and financial problems. 4
• Unmarried mothers who keep their children are more likely to repeat an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, are more likely to remain unmarried, and are more likely to have children who experience out-of-wedlock pregnancy. 1
• Seventy percent of all teen marriages end in divorce. When couples get married because of pregnancy, the failure rate increases to 90 percent within the first six years. 2
• Children reared by unmarried mothers are more often abused. 7
• Children reared by unmarried mothers have serious behavior problems. 6

Some Facts to Consider for Children Who Are Adopted

Positive outcomes for children who are adopted:

• They have strong feelings of security within their family. 10
• They do extremely well in school. 10
• They attend college more often than the general population. 10
• They experience lower rates of crime and drug abuse. 10
• They have a healthy sense of self-esteem and optimism. 10
• When compared with the general population, children placed with adoptive couples are better off economically and have parents who are better educated and who are older than the parents of other children. 5
• Adoptive parents are less likely to divorce. 8
• Adoption brings entitlement to be a parent and with it lifelong commitment. Therefore, children who are adopted have the same security as children raised by both of their biological parents. There is no ambivalence in the parent-child relationship as there often is in the non-adoptive stepparent-child relationship. 9

Sources

1. Battelle Human Research Center Study, Unmarried Parents Today, NCFA, March 1988.
2. Bethany Christian Services, A Case For Adoption, 1985, pp. 12-13.
3. Children's Defense Fund, "Preventing Children Having Children," 1986.
4. Children's Defense Fund, "Child Support in Teen Parents," Adolescent and Pregnancy Prevention Clearinghouse, 1987.
5. Journal of Marriage and the Family, "Characteristics of Biological, Step, and Adopted Children", 1965.
6. Newsweek, "Kids Who Bounce Back." September 12, 1988, p. 87.
7. TIME Magazine, "Children Having Children", December 9, 1985.
8. U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, (NCHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1988.
9. Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe, "Dan Quayle Was Right," The Atlantic Monthly, April 1993
10.  Search Institute Study of 1994

Deciding To Parent

You may have more questions than answers about parenting or maybe the thought of becoming a parent seems impossible to you at this time. We've talked to hundreds of clients who are concerned about things like this:

• My husband or boyfriend doesn't want the baby but I do.
• (for men) My girlfriend doesn't want the baby but I do.
• I can't tell my family.
• How will I finish school?
• How will I continue working?
• Where will I live?
• I don't have medical insurance.
• I can't afford a child.
• I'm too young.
• I want to be married first.

Even if you have had no experience or interaction with children, everyone has to start somewhere.  Choosing to raise your child yourself is not out of the question. You may feel that you do not have the abilities to raise a child, but there is help available to you. With the support of caring people, parenting classes and other resources, you will find the help you need to make this choice.
Call us and we can talk with you about referrals, financial assistance and parenting classes. We provide peer counselors to help you through every step of the process.