<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Adoption is often framed as a loving and selfless decision made by women who want to give their babies a better life—but many relinquishing mothers say it doesn’t actually feel like a real choice at all.

Private domestic adoption in the U.S. operates under conditions of high demand, limited supply, and deep economic inequality. Researchers say women rarely choose adoption over abortion or parenting, and many relinquishing parents report long-term trauma. 

Sociologist Gretchen Sisson draws on a decade of interviews in her book "Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood" to examine who adoption really serves—and who it leaves behind. 

She invites us to rethink adoption from the ground up, and asks what real support for families would actually look like.

Show notes and transcript available at relationscapes.org.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Gretchen Sisson studies abortion and adoption in the United States as a sociologist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of "Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood," based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with women who have relinquished infants for domestic adoption over the past 60 years.

Fireside with Blair Hodges

Relationscapes: “Birth Mothers Pay the Hidden Costs of Adoption,” with Gretchen Sisson

Relationscapes: “Birth Mothers Pay the Hidden Costs of Adoption,” with Gretchen Sisson

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