What If I Change My Mind? Understanding Your Rights Before You Give Up Your Baby for Adoption in Indiana

By: Grant Kirsh

One of the biggest fears expectant mothers have when they start thinking about how to give up a baby for adoption is this: what if I change my mind?

It is a fair question, and one that deserves a straight answer. At Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., we have been helping Indiana birth mothers understand their rights for over 40 years. We are a family-run law firm based right here in Indiana, not a national adoption agency operating from somewhere else. Here is what you need to know.

Before You Sign Anything, You Are Free to Change Your Mind

Until you sign the legal consent to adoption, you can change your mind about anything. The family you chose. The adoption plan. Adoption altogether. Nothing you do before that signature is legally binding.

That means you can reach out to us, learn about adoption, review family profiles, choose a family, accept financial assistance during your pregnancy, and still decide that parenting is the right choice for you. None of those steps lock you in. None of them can be used against you.

This is true whether you are in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Bloomington, or anywhere else in Indiana. Your right to change your mind before consent is protected by Indiana law.

When Can You Sign the Consent?

In Indiana, you, the birth mom, cannot sign the consent to adoption until after your baby is born. There is no specific waiting period that the law requires, but the Indiana Hospital Association, whose policy Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. helped draft and update as recently as 2025, recommends that hospitals prefer you wait no sooner than 24 hours after a normal delivery, or 48 hours after a c-section, before signing.

That time is yours. Use it. Be with your baby. Rest. Think. No one at Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. will pressure you to sign before you are ready.

What Happens After You Sign?

Once you sign the consent to adoption in Indiana, your decision is legally effective. It is important to understand this clearly. There is a 15-day window during which you may attempt to withdraw your consent, but this is very difficult to do and is not a true revocation period. Once signed, consent is effectively final and legally binding.

This is exactly why we make sure every birth mother we work with feels fully informed, fully supported, and genuinely at peace before she ever puts pen to paper. That is not just good practice, it is the whole point. This is why at Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. we were the first to offer birth parents to have their own free legal representation.

What If I Feel Pressured?

If anyone, a family member, a friend, an adoptive family, or anyone else is pressuring you to sign before you are ready, that is a serious problem. You have the right to take your time. You have the right, if you work with Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. on your adoption plan, to your own independent attorney, paid for by the adoptive parents, whose only job is to look out for you.

At Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., we were the first adoption professionals in Indiana to offer that birth mothers have access to independent legal counsel at no cost to them. Your attorney is there for you, not the adoptive family.

Changing Your Mind Is Not Failure

Some women go through the entire process and decide at the end that they want to parent their baby. That happens. It is not a failure. It is not a betrayal. It is a mother making the best decision she can with the information and support she has.

What matters is that your decision, whatever it is, is made freely, fully informed, and without pressure. That is what we are here to help you do.

Whether you are in Muncie, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Anderson, Carmel, Fishers, Hammond, Gary, or Greenwood — our services are 100% free to you and there is never any obligation just for reaching out.

Call or text us at 800-333-5736. Visit us at IndianaAdoption.com. Everything is confidential.

About the Author
Grant Kirsh is a second-generation adoption attorney and owner of Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., a family law firm in Indianapolis, Indiana that has been serving Indiana families since 1981. Grant graduated from Indiana University McKinney School of Law in 2013 and has personally handled nearly 3,000 foster care adoptions and his law firm has handled over 5,000 private newborn adoptions. He practices all forms of domestic adoption, with a deep personal commitment to expectant mothers considering adoption in Indiana and Indiana’s foster care system and the families and children it serves.