My son was born in a different state from where hub and I lived. In the state where my son was born, the placing mother has 10 days after she signs relinquishment papers to choose to parent. So, during those 10 days, we were (obviously) required to stay in the state of the baby's birth.

Babies need to have a well visit with the pediatrician when they are seven days old. I clearly could not take my son to the person I had selected to be his pediatrician. Also, I could not take him to a pediatrician in my home state, where my health insurance would have covered the visit. (My health insurance would only cover emergency services in another state.) Fortunately, the baby and I were staying at a friend's house, so we used the pediatrician that my friend used for her own two children for that first visit.

The legal waters are a bit murky when you take a baby for the 7-day visit when you adopt out of a state where parental rights have not fully terminated. I was technically considered the baby's foster parent, but I filled out the paperwork for the doctor as the baby's mother. I chose to pay for the visit out-of-pocket so I would not have to get into issues about insurance and who is legally responsible to pay for that first visit. This baby needed a well visit at 7 days old, and no fuzzy legalities or insurance issues were going to prevent him from receiving necessary medical care.

My friend and I explained the entire situation to the pediatrician, and he gave me a price break on the cost of an office visit. I do not believe that he charged me for the Hepatitis B shot that my son received that day, either. The pediatrician reassured me that the baby was completely healthy, which was a relief because he was born with an elevated white blood count.

If you are planning on adopting a newborn, be prepared for taking the baby to see a pediatrician in his birth state when he is 7 days old. Selecting a pediatrician to do this ahead of time can relieve some of your stress during this otherwise stressful time of working through adoption paperwork and tending to a newborn baby.

Related Topic:

Nesting: How to Select a Pediatrician

Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt