That's great to know. That idea that zero-to-three is some kind of magic number has always seemed false.
No, there's no magic number, Ada. That's a silly thing. It's like an artificial convention that's used to organize things for people. Let me add something else, Ada. Attachment disorder is likely more based on brain chemistry and brain damage. And a lot of these magazines that you read aren't tapping into research done by people who are at lofty universities who really study attachment from the basis of the physiology and anatomy of the brain. And attachment likely has more to do with brain damage that occurs during the pregnancy, due to malnourishment, exposure to toxins in the environment, infections during the pregnancy, exposure to alcohol and drugs and smoking. All of that conspires to cause damage to brain structures that are involved in the actual chemistry and physiology of attachment. So when people use this sort of artificial convention of saying, you know, "You gotta get 'em by three, or else they're ruined," I think that's also not taking into consideration that attachment likely has to do with brain chemistry during pregnancy.
As for pregnancy today, there's such madness around fertility right now—
I don't think it's right now, Ada. I think the madness about fertility has existed for thousands of years. You know, childless women have been viewed as "barren." Terrible terms were applied to those sorts of couples. Divorces have occurred because people haven't been able to reproduce. Judgments have been made and people have always felt bad and depressed about not being able to parent children. And that's led to lots of bad judgments about adoption and foster care. The fervor around giving birth to a child at all costs has been fueled by the rise of technology and the media, for sure. And as more fertility technology is made available to people, people get their hopes up and then people's hopes are dashed at the same time.
It's true. The success rates of procedures like IVF are not high.
People need to understand all the options involved. There are wonderful education programs available through the American Fertility Association. There are fertility centers in all of the large medical centers, so people can go and have consultations with fertility experts. There are fertility social workers and therapists who actually specialize in dealing with families that are interested in having birth children. And they are also capable of helping parents transition to other ways of creating families, maybe adoption, 
The madness about fertility has existed for thousands of years. maybe foster care.
What is the difference right now between domestic and international adoption?
As a domestic adoption and international adoption specialist, I would say that the trend at this point [in the U.S.] is that there have always been drugs, but right now crystal meth in the rural and remote areas of our country is very common. Also, babies up for adoption are exposed commonly to smoking, alcohol, drugs. The women are frequently depressed and have a history of clinical depression or other mental illness. And poor nutrition, poor pre-natal care and lack of education access. That's kind of the profile.
One major thing that has changed [in domestic adoptions] is that more and more agencies have created policies requiring that families be open to "open adoption," where in the birth family is involved, certainly the birth mothers. There's a lot of emphasis psychologically about the birth triad, transparent openness, people understanding each other and knowing each other through the life cycle.
And international adoption?
International adoptions have changed a lot in the past few years. The countries that are open and very popular: Russia, China, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Vietnam, South Korea, Kazakhstan.
Russian adoption looked like it was going to blow up, because of changes in accreditation [whereby orphanages must conform to certain standards], but accreditation is once again on hold in Russia due to the recent resignation of officials in the Russian government.
China's adoption has changed. The process has been typically about a year to two years waiting for a healthy child. Now, there's been the creation of a special needs track. Families opting for special needs adoption, the fast track program, likely wait less than a year. Regulation is going to change the rules for adoption based on weight and age: No one can adopt from China who is older than fifty years of age or has a body mass greater than forty. And no more single-parent adoption in China.
Ethiopian adoption is thriving.
Guatemalan adoption has grown hugely in the last three years, so there are three to four thousand adoptions in a year now, sort of supplanting the numbers that came out of China. Especially with the accessibility from Miami to Guatemala. But the problem in Guatemala now is that there are political forces regarding whether Guatemala will be a Hague Treaty country or will close adoption due to forces within the current government not favoring international adoption.
And, you know, there are still countries available for adoption in small numbers. There are children who come out of Taiwan in small numbers, and the care in Taiwan is just wonderful. Children come out of almost any country in the world in small numbers because people make arrangements, because they're employed in the country or have some special connection to it.
©2007 Ada Calhoun and Nerve Media
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Babble editor-in-chief
Ada Calhoun is also a blogger for AOL News, a consulting editor at Nerve.com, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Her writing has appeared in New York magazine, Marie Claire, Salon.com and the anthology One of the Guys. |
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