1. Does the adoption agency investigate adoptive families carefully?

2. Can I choose the adoptive family? Can I interview more than one adoptive family before choosing the family?

3. Can a relative or a friend adopt my baby?

4. Will someone help me to choose a family if I need help?

5. Can I meet a family before deciding? Before the baby is born?

6. Can I learn about and interview several families before deciding?

7. Can I pick a family without meeting them if I choose?

8. If I want no involvement with the adoptive family or my child, will my identity be protected?

9. Can the adoptive family be in the delivery room?

10. Can I spend time with my baby alone?

11. Can my baby go home from the hospital with the adoptive parents?

12. Can someone take care of my baby while I decide what to do?

13. Can I ask for pictures and information about my child after adoption?

14. After the baby is born will counseling be available if I need it? After the baby is adopted? Later?

15. If the adoptive family or my child wants or needs counseling, will it be available?

16. Is financial help available?

The agencies provide counseling to help you explore these options and decide for yourself what is best for you and your baby. If you are not yet sure about adoption, or your other choices, counseling is available to help you explore all of your options. There should be no charge to you for counseling.

Anyone who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and is considering making an adoption plan for their child should first research different agencies that complete adoptions. It is important to find an agency that they're comfortable with. Click here for a list of adoption agencies in Minnesota. Next, birth parents need to contact the agency they'd like to work with. They'll be assigned a pregnancy counselor or adoption worker. This person's role is to help birth parents in their decision making, educate them about adoption, and help them prepare for the grief they will experience in making an adoption plan for their child. Once a person has contacted an agency and has decided on adoption, several steps need to be completed.

1. Every birth parent needs to fill out a Social and Medical history form. All agencies have these forms.

2. Once the background form is completed, birth parents need to begin choosing a family for their child. Most agencies have a large book with many families in it who are waiting to adopt a baby. Birth parents can go through this book and choose the families they want to interview. Sometimes birth parents may already know a family that they want to adopt. The family may be relatives, friends of the family, or someone else they know. Otherwise, birth parents can interview as many families as they would like, and can then choose the family from those interviews.

3. After the birth parents have chosen a family, they need to work on their Cooperative Agreement. The Cooperative Agreement is a document that helps birth parents and adoptive parents structure their relationship. It covers how much time they will spend together before the birth of the baby, in the hospital, and after the baby is with the adoptive parents. Birth parents and adoptive parents can spend as much time together as they choose.

4. When the baby is born, birth parents can spend as much time as they want to or need to with their baby. Most often, the adoptive parents take the baby home from the hospital. (This is decided in the Cooperative Agreement.)

5. After the baby goes home with his/her new parents, the birth parents need to terminate their parental rights. This is accomplished in one of two ways:
   1. Signing of Voluntary Consents
   2. Court Termination

The pregnancy counselor/adoption worker will be able to tell the birth parents if Signing Voluntary Consents or a Court Termination is best.

6. After the adoption is completed, birth parents, adoptive parents and the child are able to maintain a relationship as agreed upon in the Cooperative Agreement.