What does the Adoptive Parent know about the Birthparents?
Adoptive parents are given medical and genetic information about birthparents as available. The birthparents have reported this information and it may be quite complete or it may be very slight. If the birthmother is a biological child herself and her parents are still together and supportive of and involved in the adoption, there may be extensive medical and genetic history available to the adoptive parents. If her mother is divorced and she has not seen her father since age 2, and they are both unaware of her pregnancy and placement, we are dependent on what she is aware of concerning family medical and genetic history. If the birthfather is involved we will hopefully have access to additional family members of his to give us a complete picture of his medical and genetic history. The bottom line is that the medical and genetic history picture is often less complete than we would optimally like it to be. Birthparents are often young enough with young parents themselves that their pare
