If you have made the courageous and loving decision to place your baby for adoption, you have many choices that can make your adoption journey both happy and special. As part of your overall Arizona adoption plan, creating a Hospital Plan with your Adoption Specialist is one of those happy times, for both you and your chosen adoptive family.

A Hospital Plan is one part of your Arizona adoption plan. It is created by you with the help of your personal Adoption Specialist and includes your wishes for the time you give birth and are in the hospital. It is then given to all individuals involved in your adoption plan, so when you go into labor, everyone knows what your wishes are and honors them.

If you go to the hospital and want to change your Hospital Plan, that’s perfectly fine. The plan is created as a baseline,

so everyone involved in your adoption understands how you want your time at the hospital to be spent.

Developing an understanding of what a Hospital Plan is good preparation for any birth mother on an adoption journey. An understanding of how the Hospital Plan works may help you not feel anxious or stressed about your upcoming hospital stay.

Here is an outline of what goes into a Hospital Plan:

• Who would you like to be with you during labor? Additionally, who do you want to be allowed in the labor and delivery room? Is there anyone who you would prefer not to be in the room with you?
• Would you like the adoptive family at the hospital with you, in the delivery room or in the waiting area?
• When the baby is born, would you like the baby handed directly to you? If allowed, who would you like to cut the baby’s cord?
• Would you like to continue to see or hold your baby? Would you like to feed and/or change your baby? How much time do you want to spend with your baby? Do you
• want alone time? Do you want your baby to sleep in your room, or in the hospital nursery?
• Would you like to name the baby, allow the adoptive family to name the baby, or choose a name together?
• Do you wish to see and maintain contact with the adoptive parents (if you have chosen an open adoption)? Would you like to see them together with your baby in your room or allow the adoptive family to spend time with the baby in their nesting room?
• Who do you want to visit you in the hospital? Is there anyone (e.g. family, friends, the birth father) you wish to see or hold the baby? Is there anyone you do not want allowed to visit you?
• How do you wish to leave the hospital—before or after the adoptive family? Who will carry the baby out of the hospital?

Again, remember your Hospital Plan can be changed or altered if you choose at a later time. The goal of this plan is to help others understand your wishes and make you as comfortable as possible. We want your adoption journey to be special and tailored exactly as you wish for it to be.

Arizona Pregnancy Help is part of Building Arizona Families, a local adoption agency in Phoenix, Arizona.  We help women who need unplanned pregnancy help and provide Arizona alternatives to abortion. If you would like to create an Arizona Adoption Plan, we are happy to assist you in placing your baby for adoption in Arizona at no cost to you!  You can read more about the support services we provide HERE.  Please call or text us 24/7 for help at 623.695.4112.