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For expectant & birth parents
You are allowed to ask questions without deciding anything.
If you are pregnant, or you have recently given birth, and you are thinking about adoption — or you are not sure what you are thinking — you can talk to a lawyer of your own, for free, before you commit to anything at all.
Free to you
Independent legal advice for expectant and birth parents costs you nothing, where California permits the fee to be paid by others.
Confidential
What you tell us stays with us. Talking to a lawyer does not put anything in motion.
Independent
If we advise you, we do not act for the adoptive family in your matter. Our duty is to you alone.
No pressure, no deadline
You can ask questions at any stage — and you can stop at any stage.
Your rights
Six things that are true regardless of who else is involved.
Agencies, attorneys and hopeful families all have their own interests. These rights are yours and nobody can bargain them away.
Your own lawyer
You are entitled to independent legal advice, separate from the adoptive family or the agency, and it should not cost you anything.
Time
A consent signed before California permits it is not valid. Nobody may lawfully hurry you past that point, and you may take longer if you need it.
Counselling
Support from someone whose job is your wellbeing, not the placement. This is often paid for as part of the adoption where the law allows.
A say in the plan
In most private adoptions you may choose the family, decide what contact looks like, and set your own hospital plan.
Privacy
Your medical and personal information is not public. What is shared, with whom and when, is largely your decision.
To change your mind
Before signing, always. After signing, within whatever revocation period California provides. Nobody may tell you that you have no choice left when you do.
What contact can look like
Adoption is not all-or-nothing any more.
Most adoptions today involve some ongoing contact. You decide what you want, and we put it in writing before placement rather than hoping goodwill holds.
Direct contact
Names, contact details, visits, calls and messages directly between you and the adoptive family, on a schedule you agree together.
Mediated contact
Letters, photographs and updates passed through the agency or attorney, with as much or as little identifying information as you choose.
No ongoing contact
No identifying information exchanged. Note that California may allow the adoptee access to records at adulthood regardless: the original records are released only by order of the superior court on good and compelling cause; a petition by an adult adoptee is given great weight, but the decision remains the court’s (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 102705).
At the hospital
You write the plan. Everyone else follows it.
A hospital plan is simply your written instructions for the birth and the days after. Staff will follow it, and having it settled in advance removes a great deal of pressure at a moment when you should not be negotiating.
Your choices include
- Who is in the delivery room
- Whether you hold the baby, and for how long
- Whether the adoptive family is present, and when
- Who names the baby on the original certificate
- Whether you room in together or separately
- Photographs, keepsakes and hand prints
- Who is told you are at the hospital
- How and when you say goodbye
Nobody may ask you to sign at the hospital
if California has not yet permitted a valid consent. If anyone presses you to sign anything before you are ready, call us.
Questions
Asked quietly, and often.
No. Legal representation for an expectant or birth parent is free to you. Where California permits it, those fees are paid by the adoptive family or the agency. You are entitled to your own lawyer, separate from theirs.
No. Asking questions commits you to nothing. You can change your mind at any point before you sign a consent, and in some circumstances afterwards.
California sets both. A consent generally cannot be signed until the birth mother has been discharged from the hospital, in an independent adoption (Cal. Fam. Code § 8801.3), and the rule on revocation is 30 days from signing, after which the consent becomes permanent — unless the birth parent signs a waiver of that right before an agency representative, or before a judicial officer or adoption service provider while represented by independent counsel, in which case it is final at once (Cal. Fam. Code § 8814.5). In an agency adoption, a relinquishment becomes final 10 business days after the Department of Social Services receives it (Cal. Fam. Code § 8700). These are the two most important dates in your decision and we will confirm both to you in writing.
In most private and agency adoptions, yes. You can review profiles, meet families, ask questions and decline. Where a child is in state custody the decision may rest with the agency and the court.
Often yes, through a post-adoption contact agreement covering letters, photographs, updates or visits. Whether that agreement is legally enforceable in California is a separate question: yes, if the court approved the agreement — but enforcement first requires a good-faith attempt at mediation, and a breach can never undo the adoption (Cal. Fam. Code § 8616.5). We will tell you honestly what you can rely on.
The law gives a legal or presumed father rights, and gives a putative father a route to assert them. His involvement affects the process. If you are frightened of him, tell us — there are protections, and we will not put you at risk.
Sometimes, within limits. California allows payment of certain pregnancy-related medical, living, counselling and legal expenses, usually with disclosure to the court. What is not allowed is payment in exchange for consent. We will explain exactly where the line is.
That is your right, and it is a legitimate outcome. Nobody here will pressure you. If you choose to parent, we can point you to resources for housing, benefits, childcare and establishing support from the other parent.
Support lines
If you are in crisis, you do not have to wait for office hours. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 · Los Angeles County Help Line for Mental Health & Substance Use: (800) 854-7771 · Emergency services: 911. Numbers checked against official sources in September 2026.