Our Services :: Post-Adoption Evaluation :: Domestic Adoption - Post-Adoption Services

I provide a comprehensive consultation service for those families adopting domestically. The service begins from the beginning of the relationship with the birth mother, and includes post-adoption care and evaluation.

Peri-natal Assessment

• Delivery:
• Apgar scores: Are they prognostic?
• These are not prognostic of the child's future
• These scores represent what we need to do for the baby at the time of the delivery
• Obstetrical events
• Drug testing as needed on the baby's urine.
• Outpatient/office record as well as a hospital record need to be reviewed.

Newborn Assessment

• There is a pediatrician who will examine the baby at the hospital. This doctor is usually a house doctor, but some birth mothers are able to choose a private pediatrician as recommended by their obstetrician or midwife
• I review:
• the birth record and the hospital course.
• height, weight, and head circumference at birth and discharge.
• the feeding record of the baby in the nursery.
• urine production and stool passage.
• I speak to the pediatrician who examines the child as needed.
• Newborn screen is done in the nursery and has to be followed. This set of test results is usually sent to the pediatrician who saw the baby in the nursery and it becomes part of the child's hospital medical record.
• If the child is premature or ill at birth, all of those records will be reviewed and I can speak to all specialists involved in the care of the baby.

At-Risk Pregnancies

• If the mother has a difficult pregnancy which requires intervention with a perinatologist, then I can review those records along with other specialists as needed, i.e. if the birth mother requires sonograms, amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, stress tests, diabetes evaluations (gestational), we might ask specialists to help as well

Reading Materials

ADOPTION & PRENATAL ALCOHOL AND DRUG EXPOSURE
Research, Policy, and Practice
Edited by Richard P. Barth, Madelyn Freundlich, and David Brodzinsky
Child Welfare League of America
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
2000

Fee Schedule available online.

My office manager will work with you to help you receive the fullest possible reimbursement from your health insurance company, but payment in full is required at the time of service.