Adoption in Fife - Home Page

Adoption in Fife | 3What kind of children and young peopleneed families?There are all kinds of reasons why children can’t stay withtheir birth families. Some children come from complex familybackgrounds while others may have experienced trauma intheir life due to separation, loss, abuse, neglect or other hurtfulexperiences.Nowadays, we rarely have straightforward young babiesavailable for adoption. If we need to find an adoptive family fora baby, it is likely that a decision will have been made to removethe child because the mother is not able to care for him/her.Babies like Cheryl, age 10 months, who was placed in fostercare at three weeks of age, because of her mother’s heroinaddiction and inability to look after her two brothers. Cherylhad to stay in the hospital to help her withdraw from thedrugs her mother was using during pregnancy. She wasan unsettled, fractious baby for the first few months and,although she is responding well to patient care, she cansometimes cry inconsolably for no obvious reason. Sheis beginning to crawl and laugh, but there are still someconcerns about her general development.