Losing a child to adoption can be shattering. Birth Connections is here to offer advice, support and counselling to birth parents and other family members who are struggling to come to terms with the loss they have experienced.
We are entirely independent and offer a variety of different services to provide the best possible support for birth relatives of adopted children.
Our Birth Connections service receives a high response rate when we contact the birth relatives for the first time. To make things as easy as possible for you, our staff will always try to meet with you in your own home.
Many birth relatives feel they’ve had negative experiences when communicating with local authorities about their child; we can assist with this contact. We offer advice, explain the process and help birth relatives to communicate with the relevant authorities. This not only benefits the relatives, but also the local authority.
Birth Connections offers a limited number of one-to-one sessions with a professional to help birth relatives come to terms with the loss of a child.
Either alongside or after these one-to-one sessions, birth mothers have the option to join support groups, which helps them to engage with others in a similar situation. Here it is possible to share what might be difficult for the outside world to relate to. The support groups generally have a focus per session; this could be drama, a workshop on how to manage loss, or a visiting speaker.
Birth relatives are encouraged to meet their child’s adoptive parents, with appropriate support from the Birth Connections team. This can be of help to all parties involved and can especially benefit the child. Adopters will be able to refer to the meeting when doing Life Story work with their children. That personal contact can also set the tone for good communication via Letterbox contact as the child grows up.
Letterbox contact is something else that Birth Connections can help with too. Our drop-in service offers assistance and emotional support to birth relatives as they write and receive letters from their children. This service is often provided jointly with the local authority, which again helps to ensure that all parties involved in your child’s welfare are communicating and working well together.
Birth Connections also provides support during the often difficult ‘Wish You Well Contact’ that birth relatives have with their children. This can include the practical aspect of transporting you to and from the meeting, and offering emotional support so that you are able to get through the situation in the best way possible.
In this short film, birth parents who have lost their child(ren) talk about their experiences, and the support they’ve received from SFCS…
The Birth Connections service is commissioned through local authorities, and is currently only available to individuals who live in the Buckinghamshire area.
