Evaluating Risk Factors in Domestic Adoption
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
02/26/25
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Are you thinking about adopting a baby? Are you worried about what risk factors exist that you should know about? Join us to talk about these issues with Dr. Lindsay Terrell, a pediatrician at Duke University Medical Center and an Assistant Professor in their Department of Pediatrics. And James Fletcher Thompson, a South Carolina attorney with extensive experience in adoption.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Lack of prenatal care.
- What is covered in prenatal care and how might a lack of prenatal care impact a baby?
- Prematurity
- What causes a premature birth?
- Prenatal exposure
- Alcohol
- What are some red flags that a mom might have abused alcohol during her pregnancy?
- Does the degree of impact differ depending on when in the pregnancy alcohol was consumed?
- What are the long- and short-term impacts of alcohol consumption on a child exposed prenatally?
- Creating a Family’s Prenatal Substance Exposure Workshop for Parents
- Opioids
- List of opioid drugs in increasing degree of strength
- Codeine.
- Hydrocodone (Vicodin, Hycodan)
- Morphine (MS Contin, Kadian)
- Oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percoset)
- Hydromorphone (Dilaudid)
- Heroin
- Fentanyl (Duragesic)
- Methadone, Suboxone
- Does the degree of impact differ depending on when in the pregnancy the opioid was used?
- Does the degree of long-term impact differ depending on whether the baby was born dependent or with a diagnosis of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) or Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)?
- What are the long- and short-term impacts of opioid exposure on a child exposed prenatally?
- List of opioid drugs in increasing degree of strength
- Cocaine
- Marijuana
- Methamphetamine
- Polysubstance abuse
- Creating a Family has extensive resources to help parent a child exposed to opioids prenatally.
- Alcohol
- Sexually Transmitted Infections
- What are the common STIs?
- What are the risks of each of them to the unborn child or newly born child?
- Mental Health Issues
- What is the genetic connection for the following mental health disorders? How heritable are these mental illnesses?
- Anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and phobias.
- Mood disorders: Depression, bipolar disorder
- Personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, narcissistic)
- Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia
- ADHD
- What is the genetic connection for the following mental health disorders? How heritable are these mental illnesses?
- Legal Risk Factors
- What are the most common legal risk factors when adopting an infant through private adoption?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
How to Connect with Birth Mom with Mental Illness? - Weekend Wisdom
February 22, 2025
•11m
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Question: I've been listening to your podcast for a few years! Our 10-year-old kinship adopted daughter has lived with us since she was 2 months old. For a variety of reasons, there hasn't been any in-person visits or phone calls with her birth mom (my sister). Communication has been limited to holiday/birthday cards and gifts. My sister has schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Because she has been stable on her medications and her behaviors are typically within a somewhat 'predictable' range, we're thinking it's time to begin an in-person relationship. We're planning on writing a letter to my sister to tell her our thoughts on all of this and establish some ground rules and boundaries. After she has some time to digest that letter, my wife and I plan to meet with her in person (without our daughter) to firm up plans, expectations, etc. My questions are:
- What are some generally good boundaries to set up?
- How can we help prepare my sister for potentially tough questions from our daughter? (My sister is in denial that anything is wrong with her.)
- How can we prepare our daughter for all of this?
- How can we do this in a way that doesn't feel like we're wagging our finger at my sister and being 'above her'?
Resources:
- Working with Birth Parents for the Child's Best Interest (Resource page)
- Evaluating Risk Factors in Adoption (Resource page)
- Finding an Adoption-Competent Therapist (Resource page)
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
Coping with Stillbirth After Adoption Match - Weekend Wisdom
March 1, 2025
•7m
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Question: I've been an adoption social worker for almost seven years and just experienced my 2nd situation where the birth mother in a match had a stillbirth after selecting a family through our agency. Both situations were such a difficult loss for both parties. I'm curious if you've heard of others who experienced this unusually tragic type of loss during adoption. I'm not sure how common it is, especially given the rate of stillbirths is 1 in 175 births in the U.S. How can adoption professionals (on the adoptive parent AND birth parent side) best walk through such a situation with their clients?
Resources:
- Creating a Family Online Support Group
- How can you deal with your feelings of grief after a stillbirth? (March of Dimes)
- Stillbirth: Surviving Emotionally (American Pregnancy Association)
- Find a Local Chapter - The Compassionate Friends
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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