Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care

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Are you considering adopting or fostering a baby who was exposed to opioids prenatally? We talk with Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a faculty member in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health. Her research focuses on improving the outcomes and increasing resilience in children who have experienced trauma, including prenatal exposure.

In this episode, we cover:

• What drugs are included in the category of opioids? 
  • Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others. 
  • Methadone and suboxone?
• How does prenatal exposure to opioids affect a fetus?
• How can you tell if the baby is born dependent on opioids?
• What are the symptoms of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)?
• How common is testing of the newborn or mother?
• What impacts the severity of the withdrawal symptoms an infant might experience?
  • timing of the mother’s most recent intake of opioid
  • maternal metabolism
  • placental metabolism
  • infant metabolism and excretion
  • maternal taking of other substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, hypnotics sedatives, and/or barbiturates
• How is NAS treated in the hospital?
• What can parents expect at the hospital when a baby is born dependent or was exposed prenatally?
• What can parents expect when they first bring the baby home?
• How can parents help soothe a baby going through withdrawal?
• How can parents help a baby going through withdrawal with sucking?
• What can parents do to help their baby exposed to opioids sleep through the night?
• Any additional tips for dealing with and helping a baby who was exposed to opioids?
• Long term impacts.
• Does being born dependent predict the degree the child might be impacted?

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

Is your child "more"...more intense, more defiant, more everything and in general, just harder to parent? We talk with Dr. Chuck Geddes, the founder of Complex Trauma Resources where he developed the Complex Care and Intervention (CCI) program to support foster and adoptive children. He is the author of Children and Complex Trauma: A Roadmap for Healing and Recovery.

In this episode, we cover:

• What makes a child harder to parent? 
• The importance of recognizing what we parents bring to the relationship.
• Difference between trauma and complex trauma.
• Tantrums, meltdowns, or hissy fits are a common part of child development, but some kids have them more than others and they are more intense. What factors contribute to some children being more susceptible to tantrums? 
  • At what age in normal child development are tantrums most common?
  • How does trauma change the dynamic with tantrums?
  • Techniques for preventing tantrums.
  • Techniques for handling tantrums.
• Need for constant supervision
• Lying 
• Being disrespectful

www.complextrauma.ca/

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

Have you experienced a miscarriage? What type of genetic tests should you consider to prevent another miscarriage? We will talk about Genetics, Genetic Testing, and Miscarriage with Kim Skellington, a laboratory genetic counselor with CooperGenomics providing pre-test and post-test counseling to patients regarding genetic testing, and Dr. Rachel Gerber, a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist with RMA NY.

In this episode, we cover:

• What causes a woman to miscarry a pregnancy? 
• How common is miscarriage? 
• What is considered Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL)? 
• How common is recurrent pregnancy loss? 
• Basic introduction to DNA, genes, and chromosomes. 
• Genetic Testing of Products of Conception
  • What can go wrong with the genes of a fetus that would likely result in a miscarriage? 
  • What genetic tests on the products of conception are available after a miscarriage to determine the cause? 
  • At what point does a doctor consider genetic testing of the products of conception to determine the cause of the miscarriage? After the first miscarriage? Second? Third? How does a woman’s age impact this decision? 
  • How are the products of conception tested? What are patients told to do? 
• Genetic Testing of Embryo
  • What is preimplantation genetic testing? 
  • Distinction between PGT-A, PGT-M, PGT-SR?
  • Is PGT effective at preventing miscarriage? What does the research currently show? 
  • Are mosaic embryos more likely to miscarry?
• Genetic Testing of Parents
  • What parental chromosomal abnormalities can cause a miscarriage? 
  • What is a chromosomal translocations and can that cause a miscarriage? 
  • Is there a gene or genes that has been found that makes it more likely that a woman will miscarry a pregnancy of a chromosomally normal fetus? 
  • If a woman’s mother had multiple miscarriages, is she likely to have miscarriages?
  • Can these genetic anomalies by found by Parental karyotyping?
• What is the prognosis for women trying to get pregnant after having had recurrent miscarriages? 

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

What are the microaggressions or stigmas in the world of adoption and how do they impact adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents?  We talk with Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive parent of a daughter from China.

In this episode, we cover:

• What are microaggessions in general and how do they apply to adoption? 
• These microaggressions apply to all members of the adoption kinship network (adoptees; adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings; first/birth parents/grandparents).
• Where do some of the unconscious attitudes and stigmas toward adoption come from? 
• Common microaggression themes for adoptees:
  • biology is best/normative is based upon the belief that biological ties are superior, more permanent, and more authentic than ties formed through adoption or foster care 
  • bad seed adoptees or damaged goods
  • grateful adoptees, a third theme, refers to the idea of adoptees as both lucky and privileged to have been adopted 
  • cultural limbo and invalidation of heritage 
• What are some of the microagressions against birth parents?
• What are some of the microaggressions against adoptive parents?
• Lack of intent to hurt.
• How can microsaggressions impact the mental health?

Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

How can we raise joyful resilient kids? We talk with Dr. Mona Delahooke, a clinical child psychologist and the author of Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids.

In this episode, we cover:

• “Too often we are focused on the child’s behavior instead of the child. We are concerned about solving problems rather than cultivating the relationship.”
• A child’s behavior is a clue for us parents to understand what is going on inside the child.
• No one-size fits all approach to child rearing. What’s most important isn’t the rules, but the child. We must understand how our parenting is landing on our child. Personalize our parenting.
• Three pathways to the mind-body platform.
• Body budgeting.
• The distinction between behaviors that seems to be defensive but are actually protective.
• How do you approach tantrums in a preschooler?
• How to co-regulate with our child and why?
• How to build resiliency in our children?

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

The impact of prenatal exposures to alcohol and drugs is not something that kids outgrow and the transition into adolescence and adulthood can be particularly tricky. We talk about this transition with Kathy Hotelling, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and is the co-founder of NCFASDInformed.org. She is also the mother to a 27 year old with FASD.

In this episode, we cover:

• Tell us a bit about your story as the mother of a child with FASD.
• Does the impact and symptoms of prenatal exposure to alcohol change as the child ages?
• Are the impacts different depending on whether the child has been exposed prenatally to alcohol or other drugs, such as opiates, methamphetamines, marijuana, etc?
• We talk about the primary impacts of FASD and prenatal drug exposure and the secondary impacts? Give us some examples?
• How can parents help prevent some of the secondary impacts?
• How does puberty impact children with prenatal exposure?
• How does your parenting need to change as your prenatally exposed child reaches adolescence and adulthood?
• How to prepare your child to launch into adulthood?
• What resources are available to help parents navigate this journey?
• Often times adoptive, foster, and kinship parents do not know for certainty that their child was exposed prenatally to alcohol and drugs. How should they proceed?
• Is it important to have your child officially diagnosed with FASD?
• How do you get your child diagnosed?
• What is the Registry of Unmet Needs or the Medicaid Waiver list and how do you get your child on this registry or list?
• FASD Respect Act- how can people advocate?

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

Do you suspect (or know) that your child was exposed to alcohol or drugs during pregnancy? We discuss tips for how to best work with these children with Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a professor at Duke University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health.

In this episode, we cover:

• How does prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs affect children at different ages? 
• Oftentimes adoptive, foster, and kinship families may not know specifically if their child was exposed in pregnancy to alcohol or drugs? How can a parent determine if their child was prenatally exposed?
• What are some of the more common signs, symptoms, and behaviors a parent might see at different ages? 
  • Birth to age five
  • Elementary age
  • Tweens and adolescence
  • Young adults
• Parents, teachers, and other adults working with these children often don’t think about prenatal exposure because of the lag in time between the exposure and when the more disruptive symptoms appear. At what age do you see parents and kids beginning to struggle more?
• What are some of the common misdiagnoses that these children receive?
• How do the attention and focus issues common with kids who have been exposed to alcohol and drugs differ from ADHD? Is ADHD medication effective to improve attention in prenatally exposed kids?
• Is it common for children with prenatal exposure to be uneven in their abilities? For example, average to above average in verbal skills but substantially below average in other areas.
• What do we mean by “executive function” or “higher level thinking skills” and how does prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs impact this?
• We hear from parents that one of the most frustrating symptoms is not being able to learn from their mistakes. Doing the same thing even though they have been told not to. Not learning from cause and effect. Is this common with kids who have been exposed to alcohol and drugs during gestation?
• What are some practical tips for working with kids with prenatal exposure to help them thrive at home and at school?

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

What causes miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss? What is the best treatment and what are the controversies in the diagnosing and treating of miscarriage? In this episode, we talked with Dr. Lora Shahine, Reproductive Endocrinologist and Director of the Recurrent Pregnancy Program at Pacific NW Fertility and clinical faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, and author of the book Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss.

In this episode, we cover:

• What is miscarriage? What other names do medical professionals use?
  • Does the name change depending upon when in the pregnancy it occurs? 
  • What is a biochemical pregnancy and is it a “miscarriage”?
  • When does miscarriage become “recurrent pregnancy loss”?
  • How common are miscarriages? How common is recurrent pregnancy loss?
  • Who should you see?
  • What is the role of the male in miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss?
• Common causes and treatment 
  • What are the common causes for first trimester miscarriage?
  • What are the common causes for recurrent pregnancy loss?
  • How to diagnosis the cause of recurrent pregnancy loss?
  • How to treat/prevent recurrent pregnancy loss?
  • What should patients do to reduce their chance of a miscarriage?
• Understanding the controversies in treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss.
  • Inherited Thrombophilia
  • Methylene Tetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR)-how our body processes folate
  • Luteal Phase Defect and progesterone treatment
  • Infection
  • Thyroid
  • Immune system & immune treatment for RPL
  • Aspirin treatment
  • IVF as treatment for recurrent pregnancy loss

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

Have you or your child faced adoption related struggles? Do you think therapy might be helpful? We discuss how to find and choose an adoption competent therapist with Kelly Raudenbush, a child and family therapist and the director of Sparrow Counseling, providing specialized therapeutic services for foster and adopted children and their families.

In this episode, we cover:

• What type of professional can provide therapy?
• What’s the difference between being adoption competent and adoption informed?
• Why is competency in adoption issues important?
• What do we mean be an “adoption competent therapist”? What makes a therapist adoption informed? 
• Is adoption competence the same as trauma competence?
• How can you tell if a therapist is competent to handle adoption issues? Are there specific trainings that provide adoption competency?
• Creating a Family provides a list of ways to find an adoption competent therapist on our Adoption Therapy section. 
• How to find a therapist with lived experience of being adopted?
• Is one type of therapeutic model of treatment more effective for adoptive children and families? Theraplay, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Narrative therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
• Should therapy with adopted kids on adoption issues involve just the child, or the child and the parent?
• How can a parent determine if the therapist is a good fit for the child and family? What questions should they ask?
• What is home-based therapy and what are the advantages to this type of therapy for adoptive and foster families.
• How can you find a therapist that will provide therapy within the home? (One source is http://www.familycenteredtreatment.org/)
• Is therapy via tele-health or via teleconferencing as effective for adoptive families? How to know if it will work for your family? Ways to make it more effective.
• When to seek a therapist?

Resources:

• Creating a Family’s Adoption Therapy section 
• A Guide to Selecting an Adoption or Foster Therapist
• 10 Reasons for Parents to be in Child’s Therapy Session 

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!

How is adoption and fostering changing? We talk with April Dinwoodie, a transracial adoptee and thought leader in the field of adoption. She is host of two podcasts: Navigating Adoption and Born in June, Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World!

In this episode, we cover:

• What are some of the shifting realities that you see in adoption?
• Decline in international adoptions.
• What do you see happening with domestic infant adoptions?
• Increase importance on openness.
• What can adoption teach the world?

This podcast is produced  by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily

Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review.  This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building