Adopting babies

Highly regarded adoption attorney Stephen Ravel shares the most "emotionally charged" time of an adoption and how he as a legal professional balances all the parties involved.
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Adopting babies

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The most emotionally charged time in the adoption is the time the baby's born and the adoptive parents are at the hospital. Legally, the mother is responsible for the child. So if the child needs any medical care, the hospital staff is initially going to be looking to the birth mother for those decisions. Now, she can say, "I will let the adoptive parents take responsibility for that," or she can say, "I want to make that decision myself." And that's totally within her discretion. I can't change her mind about that, nor can the adoptive parents. They're concerned she's gonna change her mind, she's just gone through birth. It's just difficult for everybody. And I tell my clients that if you're having any problems, don't talk to the birth mother about them, talk to me about them. Leave her alone. Let her deal with the baby if she wants to. She's gonna do what she thinks is best for herself and the child. And if she's gone along this path this far, it's very likely she's gonna end up placing the child up for adoption. Now, there may be instances, a lot of instances, where the adoptive parents can be with the baby, they'll sometimes have private rooms for the adoptive parents and the child. I will have notified the hospital ahead of time that it's an adoption, let them know who the adoptive parents are and why they're there, so it should go smoothly. But it's always going to be difficult. It's always gonna be emotional because you're not sure she's gonna place the child for adoption and you're gonna be on edge. And you can't let your own emotions impact the relationship with the birth mother.

Highly regarded adoption attorney Stephen Ravel shares the most "emotionally charged" time of an adoption and how he as a legal professional balances all the parties involved.

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Stephen Ravel

Adoption Attorney

Stephen Ravel attended UC Berkley for his undergraduate degree and Santa Clara Law School for his law degree. Stephen has been an attorney since 1973, and has been involved with adoption law since 1984. He has handled over 1,300 adoptions since the start of his career. Stephen is married and has three children. His oldest child was adopted from Brazil at birth.

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