TITLE: Birth/1st Parents & "Open" Adoption

DESCRIPTION

This We the Experts features birth/first parents and their experience with “open” adoptions. “Open” adoptions are a form of adoption in which the biological parents participate in the process of placing the child with an adoptive family and may continue to have various forms of contact thereafter.

Historically, “openness” has meant many things, from sending the birth/first parent photos once a year, visiting twice a year until age 5, to the adoptive parents and child actually having a relationship with the birth/first parent as part of their extended family. Navigating an “open” adoption can look different for everyone. Birth/first parents are often taken advantage of or coerced into adoption with the ideal of having an “open” adoption as a favorable alternative without being fully informed on what that actually looks like. For example, often birth/first parents have little to no legal power to enforce their open adoption agreement.

Topics of discussion will include:

• As a birth/first parent, what do you want people to know about open adoptions? 

• What did open adoption look like in your experience?

• What are some challenges and/or positive outcomes of open adoption? 

• What type of education do you think is necessary for people to make informed decisions about open adoption? 

PANELISTS

Amy Seek (she/her) is a landscape architect and author in New York City. A birthmother of 24 years in an open adoption, she has published numerous essays about her experience. Her memoir, God and Jetfire, was published in 2015. Amy is passionate about elevating birthparent voices to shift dominant perspectives about adoption and has facilitated numerous writing and storytelling programs for birth parents and adoptees. She facilitates a First Families support group for NAAP and is a board member of Concerned United Birthparents, focusing on making birthparents more visible through social media. Amy is always eager to contribute to conversations about birthmother experience -- to validate women in its earlier stages and to dispel any notion that 'openness' mitigates the trauma inherent to adoption.

Pearl Chen (she/her), ASW, is a native of San Francisco and is a birth/first mother that has been navigating a transracial, semi-open adoption for over 17 years. She has worked in post-adoption services for birth/first mothers for over a decade, and is now a therapist and clinical coordinator for county mental health services. In her spare time, Pearl volunteers at local LGBTQ+ events, hosts comic convention panels, and enjoys hiking with her dachshund, Bituin. Pearl is very excited to engage in a discussion of, and offer personal and professional input about, open adoption in all its nuance and complex forms, and also is excited to meet other members of the adoption constellation.

Jeanetta Williams (she/her) is a proud birth mother who gave birth to her twin boys, Emmett and Maverick, October 6, 2017. She is an advocate for domestic violence and educating women on how and why placing their unborn child for adoption is a way to escape abuse and save their children at the same time. She is a strong advocate for all birth mothers, and is known for empowering women that their trials can and will be turned into triumphs. Jeanetta is excited to empower all potential birth moms that being a birth mother is the most selfless act as women that we can and ever will make.

Jenny Becknell (she/her) is the birthmother to her 32-year-old daughter. This was an in-person open adoption, where the first 18 years were "seemingly ideal." Jenny always believed she had made the "best choice" for her daughter. She shares how this open adoption took a drastic turn as the years went by. She facilitates a Birth/First Parent group with AKA the 2nd Tuesday of each month. She has shared her experience on many podcasts, with the latest being a 3-part series on the "Wandering Tree" podcast with Lisa Ann. She feels it is so important to educate others on the real, lived experiences of adoptees and birth parents. Changes need to be made with the knowledge of the truth about adoption.Jenny wants the truth to be told. She was always BEST for her daughter. She's sharing her experience with the hope that others would not have to go through the same pain she and her daughter have gone through.