Effects of adoption on the birth mother include stigma and other psychological effects a woman experiences when she places her child for adoption.
Lead
The decision to relinquish birth rights of a child is a heavy burden on the psychological makeup of a birth mother. Reactions following relinquishment include psychological, physical, and social-inter personal reactions. Birthmother Syndrome is a term that came about after a survey including 70 women who placed their children in adoption all were experiencing the same eight symptoms; signs of unresolved grief, symptoms of PTSD, diminished self-esteem, outward professions of perfection masking inner feelings of shame, arrested emotional development, self-punishment, unexplained secondary infertility, and living various extremes. She may feel a sense of loss for someone who is still alive or mourns the loss of her mothering role and may mourn for who her child may have become as her son or daughter. These feelings may resurface in later years, perhaps on the child's birthday or other important milestone in the child's life. Reports show that a birth mother feels grief when she has more children because this evokes the memory of the child she gave up. If she is faced with future infertility, she may believe it is a form of “punishment” for relinquishing her parenting rights over a child. Many birth mothers continue to mourn the loss of their child but with varying intensity.
It is not until a mother actually places her child for adoption that she experiences what Julie Axelrod believes is similar to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Inspired by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying, the author attempts to show how those who have experienced the death of a loved one may be psychologically similar to a birth mother who has placed her child for adoption. The adoptive Families Association of Of British Columbia conducted a study where birth mothers completed a short questionairre and a 40-minute recorded interview, the birth mothers in this study expressed a wide spectrum of feelings about their pregnancy and child relinquishment, ranging from happiness to debiliabting depression.
Psychological effects
The decision to relinquish birth rights of a child is a heavy burden on the psychological makeup of a birth mother. Reactions following relinquishment include psychological, physical, and social-inter personal reactions. Birthmother Syndrome is a term that came about after a survey including 70 women who placed their children in adoption all were experiencing the same eight symptoms; signs of unresolved grief, symptoms of PTSD, diminished self-esteem, outward professions of perfection masking inner feelings of shame, arrested emotional development, self-punishment, unexplained secondary infertility, and living various extremes. She may feel a sense of loss for someone who is still alive or mourns the loss of her mothering role and may mourn for who her child may have become as her son or daughter. These feelings may resurface in later years, perhaps on the child's birthday or other important milestone in the child's life. Reports show that a birth mother feels grief when she has more children because this evokes the memory of the child she gave up. If she is faced with future infertility, she may believe it is a form of “punishment” for relinquishing her parenting rights over a child.
Many birth mothers continue to mourn the loss of their child but with varying intensity.
Stages of grief
It is not until a mother actually places her child for adoption that she experiences what Julie Axelrod believes is similar to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Inspired by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying, the author attempts to show how those who have experienced the death of a loved one may be psychologically similar to a birth mother who has placed her child for adoption. The adoptive Families Association of Of British Columbia conducted a study where birth mothers completed a short questionairre and a 40-minute recorded interview, The birth mothers in this study expressed a wide spectrum of feelings about their pregnancy and child relinquishment, ranging from happiness to debiliabting depression.
The following occurs in each stage:
Denial
The overwhelming emotions that a mother feels making her feel numb to the situation. In this stage, reality has not set in. When adoptive parents maintain a positive relationship with the birth mother increased empathy can be preserved and denial can be reduced.