Archives for June 2024

Post-adoption Depression is Common

Post-Adoption Depression Affects Many Adoptive Parents

New Jersey adoption attorneys likely know that at least 10% of all adoptive parents will experience post-adoption depression (PAD). Some studies put the number much higher than that and at a rate even beyond what birth parents experience. Despite this, there is much less awareness about the issue, and it often takes adoptive parents by surprise.

What Is Post-Adoption Depression?

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a complex mixture of behavioral, emotional and physical changes that occurs in some parents after birth. It is often framed as a women’s problem, and while it occurs in women at a higher rate, PPD affects a great number of men as well. PAD is a very similar condition but one experienced by adoptive parents. There was at one point a stigma surrounding PPD. As a society, we had to break it down in order to increase awareness and support new parents. There are similar efforts underway for PPD. Adoptive parents who recognize their depression will often experience shame and other negative feelings that prevent them from getting the help they need.

PAD Takes Different Forms

Like PPD, PAD affects both women and men, and it manifests in many ways depending on the individual and on environmental factors. It can affect people who are in good health and have not grappled with mental conditions in the past. Common traits include anxiety, deep sadness and an inability to bond. Parents may also experience difficulty sleeping, which can exacerbate their PAD. The understanding of PAD among medical and mental health professions is still in its infancy. However, many experts believe that a leading cause is an emphasis on the child’s need to bond without an equal emphasis on the parent. Bonding is a dynamic process that does not occur overnight.

Preventing PAD

Awareness is an important first step. Many would-be parents adopt with no consideration that PAD is even a possibility. Experts recommend a mental health check prior to placement. It is important for every parent-to-be but particularly those that have experienced mental health challenges previously. Be honest with your doctor or therapist about what you have experienced in the past. Some adoption agencies are now requiring parents to identify professional and personal support individuals early in the process. Parents should attend counseling prior to the adoption process, during the adoption process and after it as well. Do not cease counseling just because you do not experience negative emotions right away. Continue until you have experienced the bonding and the family structure is firm.

Coping With PAD

Counseling will help with preparatory training and reading materials. Self-care is invaluable. A person must manage their stress, eat well, exercise regularly and set aside me time. If the PAD is severe, psychotherapy and medication may be necessary. Psychotherapy can include:

  • Interpersonal therapy
  • Nondirective counseling
  • Cognitive-behavioral therapy
  • Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Your therapist may also suggest a support group. It can be invaluable to socialize with people who are going through the same kind of emotional turmoil that you are.

PAD Affects the Entire Family

Experts also encourage adoptive parents to recognize that PAD is a condition that affects the entire family. If you have one parent who experiences PAD and another who does not, that other parent will be affected. It can result in negative mental health conditions in them, and they may need counseling and other support even though they are not experiencing the PAD directly. It can affect the children, particularly older children, as well. They can sense it and may feel responsible for it. A child can experience their own depression and may take on the burden of supporting the entire family.

Would You Like Professional Assistance With an Adoption?

A good adoption attorney does much more than handle the logistics and paperwork. The right attorney will help prepare you for what may come and direct you to the resources you need. At the Law Office of Cofsky & Zeidman, attorney Donald C. Cofsky has over 25 years of experience and has helped more than 1,500 families adopt. If you would like to discuss adoption with a New Jersey adoption attorney, call our main Haddonfield office at (856) 845-2555, or contact us online.

The Political Landscape of In Vitro Fertilization

In Vitro Fertilization and the Changing Political Landscape

Infertility affects millions of Americans who want to start a family. For many of these people, the path forward is an assisted reproductive technology (ART) technology, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF represents more than 99% of the ART procedures performed annually in the U.S., but the overturning of Roe v. Wade has cast doubt on whether these procedures are still legal.

What Is IVF?

IVF treatment involves a series of procedures through which pregnancy is possible. It is a treatment for infertility and also a means of preventing passing on negative genetic traits. The process involves fertilizing mature eggs with sperm in a lab. The fertilized eggs are then implanted in a female in the hopes of making her pregnant. That female may be the mother. It can also be a surrogate in cases where the mother would not be able to carry the baby to term.

Is IVF Legal?

While there are state laws that prohibit embryo research, there have historically been no state laws in the U.S. that forbid IVF. It is important to note that not all states have made IVF explicitly legal. This important particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That allowed the triggering of state laws that were on the books but suppressed up until that point. None of those trigger laws prohibit IVF. Most were written long before IVF was a concept. However, many of them include language that may open the doors for IVF to be illegalized in those states.

The Anti-Abortion Factor

Research shows that the vast majority of Americans support IVF. Even among groups that are very conservative, support is high. Any legal ramifications to IVF have largely been collateral damage from the debate over reproductive rights at large. Republicans are broadly against abortion and fought to overturn Roe v. Wade ostensibly in order to revert rights to the state. In order to make abortion illegal, laws will often define personhood as starting at the point of conception. This is where it gets murky. Through that definition, a person is created at the moment the lab fertilizes the egg in an IVF procedure.

What Is the Debate Over IVF?

There is not much debate over IVF itself. Most Americans agree that IVF should be legal and want it protected. Among those who want abortion banned, there is concern over definitions and language. Could explicitly legalizing IVF create cracks in the laws prohibiting abortion? There are some, particularly religious conservatives, who argue that IVF is unnatural, but those people are a minority according to most major polls on the subject.

The Law to Protect Doctors

Alabama has been at the center of the IVF debate. It has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws on record. These laws include specific language, such as the destruction of extrauterine children constituting a wrongful death, that casts doubt on whether IVF is legal. The trigger laws even spurred some IVF clinics to stop operating. In response, however, Alabama’s majority-Republican state legislature passed a law that protected IVF. New Jersey adoption lawyers have noted that the law was not a perfect solution. IVF proponents argue it protects doctors too much from malpractice lawsuits and therefore puts families at greater risk.

Uncertainty for Families and Surrogates

As of 2024, there remains doubt for families in more than a dozen states. There are already fewer doctors in those states offering IVF treatment. The costs are going up, and the waiting lists are getting longer. There are also many families with embryos in storage that are unsure how to proceed. In Texas, for instance, there is fear that the state will make it illegal to destroy embryos in 2025.

Legal Advice and Representation for Families

If you live in New Jersey and are seeking to start a family through alternative means, the law firm of Cofsky & Zeidman is here to help. Donald Cofsky has many decades of experience as a New Jersey adoption lawyer as well as in ART and has helped more than 1,500 families achieve their goals. You can contact us online, or call our main office in Haddonfield at (856) 429-5005.

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