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About Us

Impact

Taking Stock of Our Accomplishments

In 2025, we achieved incredible milestones in empowering birthparents on their paths toward healing, growth, and connection. Through our innovative services and programming, we’ve provided transformative support, helping birthparents achieve goals they once only dreamed of.

Our Birthparents’ Stories of Growth and Achievement

Birthparents in our community have made remarkable strides. Here are some of the ways they are creating change in their lives:

  • Reconnected with her daughter after years of no contact; they now text regularly, strengthening their relationship
  • Developed job application skills, including resume writing and cover letter drafting, and started applying for jobs
  • Secured stable housing, gained full-time employment, advocated for birth mothers, reconnected with family, and began drafting a book on her experience
  • Attended a retreat, connected with an adoption-competent therapist, and began therapy
  • Attended her first ConnectCall, connected with other birth mothers, and began seeing an adoption-competent therapist
  • A transgender birthgiver expressed gratitude for the inclusivity and acceptance he found with our organization
  • Established better communication with her son and adoptive parents, planned engaging FaceTime activities, and attended her first in-person visit with her son in three years

While these milestones inspire us, there is still much work to be done.

  • The Hidden Struggle: Untreated PMAD in Birthparents

    As many as 1-in-3 birthparents live with undiagnosed and untreated Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD)—a complication affecting more than 20% of women who give birth in the U.S. each year. Pediatricians conduct PMAD screenings during well-baby visits, but birthparents—who are at a higher risk due to the trauma of a crisis pregnancy and adoption placement—rarely receive this assessment or care. This leaves birthparents with an impossible task: to show up in healthy ways for their child while battling untreated PMAD. At Shared Journeys Birthparent Collective we see this every day, and it underscores the urgent need for accessible, competent mental health care for birthparents.

  • A New Vision for Support in 2025

    At Shared Journeys Birthparent Collective we are excited to launch a groundbreaking program that will allow birthparents to be assessed and treated for PMADs through a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app. PMAD is treatable when diagnosed, and this app will enable birthparents to connect with a PMAD-competent therapist within an average of four days. By removing barriers to care, we hope to end the silent suffering of birthparents and provide accessible, compassionate support at no cost to them.

In 2025, Shared Journeys Birthparent Collective:

  • Served 134 active clients, including 88 new clients, and provided connection and community for a total of 811 birthparents
  • Hosted 70+ Connect Calls
  • Connected more than 433 birthparents through closed Facebook groups, including our birthfathers support group
  • Sent over 900 birthday card emails to our clients for both their birthday, and for the birthdays of the children they placed, providing them connection, recognition, and community on difficult days
  • Gave Birthmother's Day gifts to more than 24 birthmoms and hosted a virtual gathering that provided community and support on what is often a very difficult weekend
  • Hosted special events like Palentine’s Day and a holiday party 
  • Welcomed 23 birthmoms at either an in-person or virtual therapeutic retreat

  • Provided gifts for 52 children through our Holiday Assistance Program. Since 2020, this program has provided over 300 gifts for the children placed by our birthparents, along with children they are parenting

     

Shared Journeys Birthparent Collective is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing post-placement support and services to birthparents, defined as individuals who have placed a child for adoption. Shared Journeys is not affiliated with any adoption agency, attorney or consultant and does not partner with adoption agencies, attorneys, or consultants.

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