Birth Fathers and their Adoption Experiences

Gary Clapton is a post-adoption counsellor with Birthlink in Edinburgh and a training officer with City of Edinburgh Council Social Work Department.

Birth Fathers and their Adoption Experiences by Gary Clapton, recounts the experiences of thirty young men, mainly teenagers, whose children were adopted from birth. What is striking is that, decades on, the events of that period continue to resonate for these men in a way that lends a passion and deep emotional quality to their accounts.This is a book that should be read not only by workers in adoption and fostering but also by those who work in teenage pregnancy - and by anyone who believes, deep down, that men who are not involved with their children are likely to be indifferent to them'.

• Part 1. Introduction: Adoption and Birth Parents, Birth Fathers and Fatherhood. 1. Introduction. 2. Adoption and Birth Parents: From Out of the Shadows. 3. Birth fathers: What do we know? 4. Fatherhood today. Part 2. The Life Experiences of Birth Fathers. 5. Pregnancy and Birth. 6. The Adoption. 7. Life After Adoption. 8.Birth Father and Child: Towards Meeting and the Meanings of Contact. Part 3. Birth Father Narratives: The Implications. 9. Understanding Men and Fathers. 10. Working with Fathers. References. Index.