By: Grant Kirsh

If you are in your third trimester and just now starting to think about how to give up your baby for adoption, you may be wondering: is it too late?

The answer is no. It is not too late and it is not uncommon to start the process in your third trimester. We help women in exactly this situation regularly at Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. Some of the birth mothers we work with do not reach out until very late in their pregnancy, and some do not contact us until they are already at the hospital. We can work with all of those timelines.

There Is No Deadline to Start an Adoption Plan

Indiana law does not impose a deadline for when you must begin the adoption process. You can start exploring your options at any point during your pregnancy. Whether you are two months along or nine months along, the legal process works the same way.

What does change with timing is how much preparation is possible. When a birth mother reaches out earlier, we have more time to walk her through her options, help her choose a family, prepare a hospital plan, and make sure everything is in place. When a birth mother reaches out in her third trimester or at the hospital, things move faster, but we are fully capable of handling it. We have been doing this in Indiana for nearly 50 years.

What Happens When You Reach Out Late in Pregnancy

Here is what the process looks like when you contact us in your third trimester:

We talk. We listen to your situation, answer your questions, and make sure you understand your options. This costs you nothing and carries no obligation.

If you want to move forward with an adoption plan, we help you review family profiles. With over 100 families waiting to adopt, we can find profiles that match what you are looking for quickly. Adoptive families can come from anywhere in the country.

We help you prepare for the hospital. We know the hospitals, social workers, and doctors across Indiana. In fact, we have been doing this so long that we have helped many of those professionals adopt children themselves. We will make sure your wishes are communicated to the hospital staff and that a plan is in place before your delivery.

Your baby is born. You have all the time you want with your baby. You sign the consent when you are ready, in accordance with the Indiana Hospital Association policy that we helped draft: no sooner than 24 hours after a normal delivery or 48 hours after a c-section.

What If the Father Is Not Involved?

If the father is not in the picture, we can address that. According to Indiana Code § 31-19-5-12, Indiana’s putative father registry gives a man the later of 30 days from the child’s birth, or the filing of a petition for adoption or a petition to terminate parental rights to register. If he does not register, his ability to contest the adoption becomes impossible. Furthermore, if he is served with notice and does not act within 15 days, pursuant to Indiana Code § 31-19-5-18 his consent is irrevocably implied. Indiana Code § 31-19-9-14 states that if his consent to adoption is implied under Indiana Code § 31-19-5-18, he is also barred from establishing paternity. Furthermore Indiana Code § 31-19-16 states that a putative father whose consent to adoption is implied is not allowed to challenge the adoption or the irrevocability of their implied consent to the adoption. Every situation is different, but an experienced Indiana adoption attorney knows how to navigate these technical issues efficiently. This is why we always say it is better to work with an experienced adoption attorney, rather than a well intentioned social worker.

Do Not Wait Until It Is Too Late

While it is never too late to start the conversation, there is a much harder version of this situation that we are seeing more and more. Women who bring their baby home, try to parent for weeks or months, and then call us wanting to place the child for adoption. By that point, the legal landscape is significantly more complicated, mostly because the father of the child, who may no longer be in the picture, still has legal rights if paternity has been established, making it nearly impossible to place the child for adoption.

If adoption is on your mind right now, even in your third trimester or at any point during your pregnancy or even after you delivered, call us today. Do not wait until after the baby comes home with you. That just makes it much harder on you. Right now is the right time to have the conversation.

Our services are 100% free. Whether you are in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Carmel, Fishers, Bloomington, Hammond, Gary, Muncie, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Anderson, or Greenwood, we are here.

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

For a complete overview of the adoption process, read our Complete Guide to Giving Up a Baby for Adoption in Indiana.

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.