Adoption is often spoken about as a beautiful fairy tale, but the reality is a deeply complex landscape where profound grief and immense love walk hand-in-hand.

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Ashley Mitchell—a birth mother in an open adoption, co-founder of Adoption Rights, and a trusted, influential voice in the adoption space for nearly two decades. Ashley strips away the sugarcoating to talk about the raw emotional journey of a birth mother’s post-placement grief. We also dive into the anxieties and self-imposed expectations that adoptive parents face, how to build a healthy relationship between all sides of the adoption triad, and why continuous support groups are a lifeline for everyone involved.

• Ashley’s Story: How her personal journey as a birth mother fueled a 20-year mission to advocate for ethics and transparency in adoption.
• The Hidden Grief: Honoring the intense, lifelong emotions of birth mothers and breaking the myth that they just "move on."
• Bridging the Gap: Navigating the unique, evolving relationship between birth mothers and adoptive parents.
• The Adoptive Parent Pressure: Unpacking the self-imposed expectations and anxieties that adoptive families carry, and how to find peace in the messy reality.
• Finding Your Village: The crucial role of specialized support groups for both birth mothers and adoptive families.

• Connect with Ashley & find birth mother support: Big Tough Girl
• Support Group Curriculums & Resources for Birth Mothers: Knee to Knee
• American Mothers, Inc.(R) - Learn more, join, or nominate an outstanding mom for Mother of the Year(R)