Blending Children by Birth and Adoption

Have you ever considered adopting after you had children by birth? Or thought about trying to get pregnant after you adopted? Is it a good idea to combine kids by birth and adoption. In this episode, we talk with Rebecca Ricardo, an LCSW who has worked in the field of adoption since 1991. She currently serves as the Executive Director for a licensed, child-placing agency that provides both placement and support services. She is an adoptee and a birth mom. The son she placed for adoption was raised as the only adopted child between two children born to his adoptive parents.

In this episode, we cover:

•       What are the typical reasons why families have both adopted and non-adopted kids?

•       What does the research show on how children and families adjust when there are children by both adoption and infertility?

•       Do parents have a tendency to favor their biological children? Kin Selection Theory based on evolutionary psychology.

•       Does it matter if the adopted child is adopted after the family has had bio kids, or if the adopted child comes first (most often because the parents were infertile) and they went back into treatment after they adopted to try for a biological child? What different factors come into play?

•       Favoritism by grandparents or extended family. How to handle?

•       The tendency of parents of families that combine biological and adopted kids to downplay genetics, birth stories, etc.

•       How to handle conflicts with children or extended family members when children require a different type of parenting because one child has experienced trauma?

•       How to handle conflicts when one child requires more of the parent’s time than another child?

•       Tips for parents who are combining kids by birth and adoption. How can social workers help families that are considering this?

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