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Looking for Adoptions Together or FamilyWorks Together? New name, same us. Here’s why!

I’m Pregnant

Media Recommendations for Birth Parents and Professionals

Browse our library of books, articles, podcasts, and resource organizations which we recommend to expectant & birth parents as well as adoption professionals. Various topics are included with resources either explicitly directed to birth parents or explore relevant subjects.

Free Expectant Parent Counseling

Supportive Media for Birth Parents and Professionals

We maintain curated lists of resources that offer valuable insights, guidance, and reflections pertinent to expectant/birth parents and professionals looking to provide informed care. You’ll find voices of lived experience and other experts exploring personal narratives, histories both individual and systemic, trauma and psychology, and investigations into the structures that impact birth parents.

Paths for Families is proud to offer counseling to expectant parents and birth parents no matter how long ago they placed, contact us to learn more.

For Expectant Parents

 

All-Options Talkline 

Contact the Talkline Anywhere in the US and Canada

 

Pregnancy Option Workbook: A Guide for those Facing a Pregnancy Decision

Download from pregnancyoptions.info

 

MD, DC, VA: Call or Text Our Team for Free, 24/7 All-Options Counseling

(800)439-0233

Books: Adoption Specific

 

Adoption Nation 

Adam Pertman

Read More

 

Adoption Unfiltered Revelations from Adoptees, Birthparents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies 

Sara Easterly, Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard & Lori Holden

Read More

 

American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption

Gabrielle Glaser

Read More

 

Birthmothers: Women Who Have Relinquished Babies for Adoption Tell Their Stories

Merry Bloch Jones

Read More

 

Finding Hope: A Birthmother’s Journey into the Light

Hope O. Baker

Read More

 

Life Givers: Framing the Birth Parent Experience in Open Adoption

James L. Gritter

Read More

God and Jetfire: Confessions of a Birth Mother

Amy Seek

Read More

 

Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency 

Sharon Kaplan Roszia & Allison Davis Maxon

Read More

 

Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood 

Gretchen Sisson

Read More

 

The Baby Market: The Case for Adoption Reform 

Anne Moody

Read More

 

Saying Goodbye to Baby: A Counselor’s Guide to Birth Parent Loss and Grief in Adoption 

Patricia Roles

Read More

 

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade 

Ann Fessler

Read More

Books: Grief and Loss

 

Finding Meaning 

David Kessler

Read More

 

It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who we are and How to End the Cycle 

Mark Wolynn

Read More

 

It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok 

Megan Devine

Read More

 

Man’s Search for Meaning 

Victor Frankl

Read More

 

Mother Brain 

Chelsea Conaboy

Read More

 

The Body Keeps the Score 

Bessel van der Kolk

Read More

 

The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss 

Mary-Frances O’Connor

Read More

 

The Healing Choice: Your Guide to Emotional Recovery After an Abortion 

Candace De Puy & Dana Dovitch

Read More

 

The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief 

Francis Weller

Read More

 

You Can Heal Your Heart: Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death

Louise Hay & David Kessler

Read More

 

Alan Wolfelt grief booklets: 

  • Expected Loss: Coping with Anticipatory Grief
  • Too Much Loss: Coping with Grief Overload
  • The Guilt of Grief: How to Understand, Embrace, and Restoratively Express Guilt and Regret after a Loss
  • The Other Losses: Acknowledging and Mourning All Your Losses Along Life’s Path
  • The Anger of Grief: How to Understand, Embrace, and Restoratively Express Explosive Emotions after a Loss
  • Complicated Grief: How to Understand, Express, and Reconcile Your Especially Difficult Grief 
  • Cherishing: The Art of Fully Living While Still Loving and Honoring those Who’ve Died

 

Journals

 

Birth Parent’s Guide to Grief: A 12 Step Process 

Jessalynn Speight & Alysia Foote

Read More

 

Grow, Flower & Flourish: A Birth Parent Journal 

On Your Feet Foundation

Read More

 

How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief 

Megan Devine

Read More

 

Revealing You: A Journal for Birth Mothers 

Michelle Thorne

(Please note: This resource is a Christian workbook) 

Read More

Resource Organizations

 

AdoptMatch Resource Database for Birth Parents 

https://www.adoptmatch.com/birth-parent-resources-database

 

Birth Mammha app

mammha.com

 

Birth Moms Today

birthmomstoday.com

 

Brave Love

bravelove.org

 

Knee to Knee 

sitkneetoknee.com

 

On Your Feet Foundation 

onyourfeetfoundation.org

 

Postpartum Support International

postpartum.net

 

Tied at the Heart

tiedattheheart.com

 

Weaving Threads

https://weavingthreads.org/

Podcasts

 

Birth Mothers Amplified 

Muthoni & Emma

adoption.org/birth-mothers-amplified

 

Birth Moms Real Talk 

D. Yvonne Rivers

birthmomsrealtalk.com

 

Twisted Sisterhood Podcast 

Ashley Mitchell & Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard

twistedsisterhoodpodcast.com

 

Creating A Family 

Creating a Family

creatingafamily.org/radio-show

 

The Triad Podcast: Straight to the Heart of Adoption 

Hope O. Baker, Sharon Obazee & Shelbi Walker

https://www.hopeobaker.com/book-and-podcast

For Professionals

Birth Parent Grief in Adoption

Meshan Lehmann

Read More

 

Non-Death Loss and Grief: Context and Clinical Implications First Edition edited 

Darcy L Harris

Read More

 

Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy 

William Worden

Read More

 

Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work With Ambiguous Loss

Pauline Boss

Read More

 

Out of the Shadows, a film about birth moms

Watch on Vimeo

Next Resource

Expectant Parent FAQ