Transracial Adoption from the Eyes of Adoptee, Birth Mom, and Adoptive Mom

Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care

08/31/22

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54m

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Transracial adoption affects all parts of the adoption triad. We will talk today with a transracial adoptee and his birth mom and adopted mom. We will include tips for adoptive parents raising transracially adopted or fostered child.
In this episode, we cover:

Adoptee’s experience with transracial adoption
- Preschool
- Elementary years
- Middle and high school years
  - Code switching
  - Feelings
  - Identity formation
- College
- Adulthood
- Reunion with birth family
- Birth Father?
Birth Mother’s experience with reunion and transracial adoption
- Her role in identity formation
- Her feelings on reunion
Adoptive Mother’s experience with transracial adoption
Tips for adoptive and foster parents

Additional Information:

Kyle Bullock’s Instagram: kb_2090
Short documentary based on story of Kyle and his birth family and adoptive family. “Finding identity: Growing up a transracial adoptee”

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:

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Support the show

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

Trauma and Transracial Adoption

August 24, 2022

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54m

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We talk today with Dr. Gina Samuels about Trauma and Transracial Adoption. Dr. Samuels is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and In-Coming Director at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She is an adult transracial adoptee. She has a newly published article in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect tilted “Epistemic trauma and transracial adoption.”
In this episode, we cover:

How do you define trauma? What is complex trauma?
What is epistemic trauma and how does it differ from the trauma caused by abuse or neglect or witnessing violence?
The article, “Epistemic trauma and transracial adoption”, asks how might the theory of epistemic injustice highlight conditions endemic to the experience of adoption, and specifically transracial adoption, that mark a distinct type of trauma? How does this apply to all adoption and how specifically to transracial adoption?
The article posits that the condition of being transracially adopted can represent intersectional minoritized statuses.
What are some other life experiences that can result in epistemic trauma and intersectional minoritized status? Mixed race? First generation immigrant?
What are ways in which transracial adoption is traumatic? Racism? Adoption based microaggressions? Racial microaggressions?
What are ways in which the institution of adoption aid in this epistemic trauma?
“Hermeneutical smothering”—the deployment of dominant meanings that drown out, distort, or obscure one's own meaning making processes. How does this apply in adoption? How does it apply in transracial adoption? (How adoptees experience racism; how adoptees experience adoption)
“TRA does not adopt children out of racism. In fact, TRA can place children right in the center of it.” Being transracially adopted, also amplifies a person of color's proximity to whiteness, and to the meanings of race and racism that exist within in these spaces.
The feeling of being more fully understood with other transracial adopted people.
How can we do better?
The Creating a Family Facebook Support Group had an interesting discussion from all sides of the adoption triad (adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents) of the following quote: “Adoption loss is the only trauma in the world where the victims are expected by the whole of society to be grateful.” ~Rev. Keith C. Griffith
- Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/groups/creatingafamily/posts/10159843117386168/

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Weekly articles/blog posts
Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Weekly podcasts
Weekly articles/blog posts
Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Next Episode

When to Consider Sperm or Egg Donation

September 7, 2022

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50m

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Are you considering donor egg or sperm? When should you consider these options? What choices do you have and what are some of the psychological hurdles you need to consider? We talk with Dr. Angela Leung, a reproductive endocrinologist at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey; and Dr. Poonam Sharma, a Licensed Psychologist specializing in reproductive issues.
In this episode, we cover:

Sperm Donation:

What are the possibilities of getting pregnant when the male partner has an abnormal semen analysis? Does it depend on whether sperm count, motility, or morphology are abnormal?
When should patients consider sperm donation from a medical standpoint?
How and when should medical providers bring up the possibility of using donated sperm? Does it matter that the “patient” is usually the female partner?
What are some of the psychological issues that may arise for the female partner using a sperm donor?
What are some feelings the male partner commonly experiences?
What type of impact does “asymmetry of parenthood” in which there will be a biological motherhood and social fatherhood have on couples?
How do these issues differ if the patient is part of a heterosexual couple, a lesbian couple, or a single parent?

Egg Donation:

When should patients consider egg donation from a medical standpoint?
What medical conditions make egg donation appropriate?
How and when should medical providers bring up the possibility of using donated eggs? Who on the medical staff is the one that usually introduces the topic?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the female partner?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the male partner?
What type of impact does “asymmetry of parenthood” in which there will be a genetic father and biological mother who is carrying but not using her own eggs?

Donor Selection:

What are some general medical considerations when selecting any type of donor? (i.e., egg or sperm bank vs. live donor)
What advice would you give intended parents about psychological considerations when selecting a donor?
Do medical providers or mental health professionals talk with patients about the use of anonymous vs. open donors/identified donors?
What issues to consider when using known/directed donors? (i.e., friends, relatives)
Should you tell the child?

Embryo Donation:

When should patients consider using donated embryos?
How to discuss this option with patients?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the intended parents?

Additional Resources:
American Society of Reproductive Medicine Guidance Regarding Gamete and Embryo Donation
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: