Direct placement adoptions may be as open or as closed as the parties agree. I have done adoptions where all information about the parties was kept as absolutely confidential as it could be. I have also done them where all information was shared. It is up to the parties to determine the amount of information shared before and after the adoption.

One thing I tell all adoptive parents whom I represent—and that I ask of adoptive parents when I represent the birth mother—is to please not promise the birth mother anything that you do not intend to do.