Many women who have miscarriages often go on to have healthy pregnancies. However, sometimes that is not longer an opption after miscarriage. There are still ways to experience parenthood however and domestic newborn adoption may be one of them.

Please note that the following information pertains only to adoption of newborns in the United States. Other countries may have other policies and procedures.

Many states require domestic newbord adoptions to be done through a licensed adoption agency. Some require only that you work with an attorney. Regardless of what your state requires, you will need to do a home study (in fact any adoption whether it's domestic, international or through foster care, will require you to complete a home study.)

A home study consists of a series of questions about why you want to adopt, if there are other chilren in your home, if you're married, there will be questions about your marriage and other personal questions. In addition to this, there will be a physical check of your house. Social workers or adoption agency staff will check your house for space, cleanliness, smoke detectors etc. Some agencies may also require adoptive parents to create a profile which may include pictures and biographical information.

After a completed home study, the agency will generally try to match you with a birthmother. Birthmothers have a lot of say in chosing adoptive parents for their children. Adoptive parents often will pay some of the birthmother's expenses and they may establish a relationship.

Information about the birthmother's health history and family health history may be readily available. Birthmothers in the United States generally receive prenatal care. Adoptive parents can generally take home a newborn. These are some possible benefits to domestic newborn adoption.

However there are also some potential drawbacks. It may take time to be matched with a birthmother. These adoptions do not always follow a set timeline (as opposed to international adoption, which I'll discuss in an upcoming article.) Also, birthmothers can and do change their minds. I'm not sure that it happens all that often but adoptions do fall apart sometimes.

Another thing to consider with domestic newborn adoption is openness in adoption. Some families do establish longterm relationships with their birthmothers, exchanging cards, pictures and sometimes even being a part of one another's and the adopted child's life. You have to decide what degee (if any) of openness you want in adoption.

If you want to pursue adoption but are unsure which option is best, you may want to buy a book and do some additional reading. (There are many excellent books on adoption out there.)