When you hear stories about giving a baby up for adoption, many of these are from 1999 or before, when adoption was different.
Read on to learn how giving a baby up for adoption has changed in 25 years and what it is like for women today. You can also get help from an adoption professional who can give you the most up-to-date information.
Open Adoptions Are Standard
Giving a baby up for adoption in 1999, more adoption agencies did closed adoptions or semi-open adoptions, which means that many parents and their children didn’t know each other or didn’t have regular contact after birth.
Now in 2024, the standard is open adoption, which means that most women will have contact with their child and their child’s adoptive family after birth. When you choose adoption, you can see your child grow up and thrive, and maintain an important relationship with your child’s family.
Communication Is Easier
When giving up a baby for adoption in 1999, the internet was in its infancy, which means that women who chose to place their child for adoption would need to keep up through landline phone, mail, and only sometimes email—which was slow and not widely available.
Now in 2024, we are connected more than ever. You can video call over your cell phone, send pictures and videos over social media and email, and talk to people around the world nearly anywhere so long as you have your cell phone on you. This means that even if your child is placed across the country, you can keep up with them and get regular updates from your child’s adoptive family.
DNA Tests Are Widespread
If you were giving your baby up for adoption in 1999, then closed adoption meant that your child wouldn’t be given your information through their adoption agency, and without that information, it would have been incredibly difficult to find their parents or other genetic family.
In 2024, DNA tests are common—used for fun, to find out about genetic risk factors for disease, and to connect with family and find ancestry. Even dogs get DNA testing now. This proliferation of DNA testing means that having a closed adoption is more difficult, and even if your child is in a closed adoption, there is a chance they could connect the dots and find you through DNA testing. This is one of several reasons why open adoptions have become the standard.
International Adoptions Have Decreased
In 1999, roughly 16,000 families were choosing international adoption each year, and this number peaked in the early 2000s at over 22,000 international adoptions per year. However, the number of international adoptions decreased rapidly after that.
In 2007-2010, international adoptions fell to around 10,000 adoptions per year, and international adoptions continued to decrease until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many international adoptions were disrupted. Since then, international adoptions have remained steady at around 2,000 adoptions per year, or roughly 1/8th of the amount as in 1999.
How American Adoptions Has Changed
American Adoptions has been around for more than 30 years, which means that things have shifted over time. In 1999 we had only recently launched our website. Back then, there wasn’t as much information about adoption on the internet, and our ultra-small staff was on the cutting edge when AmericanAdoptions.com was launched.
Since then, American Adoptions has expanded, and we now help hundreds of parents place their children for adoption with loving families each year. We have a text line and chat bot, online contact forms, abundant information about adoption available on our website, and video profiles to help you choose a great family for your child (none of this was possible in 1999).
But some things haven’t changed—when you look back at our website in 1999, you can see we have always been here to help, we have emphasized open adoptions from the beginning, and our passion for helping people through their adoption journeys was just as strong as it is today.
