How Adoption Works for a Pregnant Woman Considering Adoption at Gladney

Gladney Center for Adoption (adoption.org) walks a pregnant woman through adoption as a staged process: an initial introduction, financial and emotional support, stories from birth mothers, decisions about contact after adoption, choosing an adoptive family, pregnancy and adoption planning, ongoing mentoring, working with the father, and finally choosing an adoption agency. The site frames the decision around three choices you control — whether you want contact with your child through open adoption, whether you want to choose the family, and whether you need medical and/or financial support during your pregnancy — and offers a free help form, a text line, and phone numbers (1-800-236-7898 and 800-222-2222) to start.

The nine steps Gladney lists

The site presents adoption as "STEP 1" through "STEP 9." In order:

1. Introduction to adoption — learning what adoption involves before deciding anything.
2. Financial & emotional support — the help available during pregnancy.
3. Stories from birth mothers — first-hand accounts to inform your expectations.
4. Contact with child after adoption — deciding on an open adoption relationship.
5. Choose an adoptive family you love — selecting the family, with an advanced search option.
6. Pregnancy & adoption calendar — planning around your due date.
7. Support & mentoring — a personal birth mother mentor and counseling.
8. Working with the father — addressing the father's role in the process.
9. Choose an adoption agency — the final step of selecting the agency itself.

The sequence matters: contact preferences and family selection come before the calendar and mentoring steps, so the relationship you want is settled early rather than after placement.

What you decide, and what support looks like

Gladney's intake questions map directly onto the choices the site says are yours:

The support described includes free financial help, caring emotional support, access to hundreds of adoptive families, a personal birth mother mentor, counseling, and lifetime support. The site also states you can "choose the life you want for your baby" — the framing is that the birth mother sets the plan, not the agency.

How to start

The site offers several entry points, all described as free and without pressure:

• Text or call 1-800-236-7898 — listed at the top of the page for anyone who is pregnant.
• Call 800-222-2222 — given as the fallback if the online form fails to submit.
• The "How can we help you?" form — asks three yes/no questions (open adoption contact, choosing a family, medical/financial support), then your state, due date, name, phone, and email. Submitting it is the request for free help.
• Text your questions — the site invites questions by text with "no pressure, no cost."

A practical note from the site itself: the form can return "We cannot process your submission at this time," in which case it directs you to the 800-222-2222 number. If you fill out the form, expect a follow-up rather than an instant answer — the form is a request for contact, not a self-service tool.

Where to look before you commit

Two resources on the site are worth using before the later steps: the open adoption video and guide, which explains what contact arrangements can look like, and the birth mother support community, where you can hear from women who have already gone through the process. The "Speak to a birth mom" option lets you talk with someone who has been in your position before you decide on contact or a family.

The site does not publish fees, eligibility rules, or state-by-state legal details on this page, so those specifics need to come from a direct conversation with the agency. What it does make clear is the order of decisions and that the support — financial, medical, emotional, and mentoring — is presented as available from the start rather than after you commit.