Support for families in adoptive parenting: contribuitoins of adoption doulas to the community

Abstract

Services to the community with public policies to support adoptive families, children and adolescents who have already experienced ruptures in their family ties of origin, is the duty of the State and society, according to the Statute of Children and Adolescents. This article presents two actions of the Doulas de Adoção Brasil extension project that, since 2019, provide services to the community during the transition from adoptive parenting, with strategies of preparation, care and gradual transition, of children welcomed to the adoptive family, impacting in the bonds that will be built. The Approximation Program took place in partnership with a Childhood and Youth Court of the Court of Justice of São Paulo, during the Covid-19 quarantine, remotely and with the required health care, based on the planning of strategies to assist reception professionals and five new adoptive parents in transition during the approach of foster children up to one year old. The Adoption Conversation Wheel, started in 2019, with more than 40 meetings with suitors, adoptive families, professionals and the extended family, works as a preparation, guidance and support in the transition of parenthood and as an important sharing space to develop families' belonging . The two actions of parental guidance in adoption contributed to reflections, construction of adoption as a way of parenting and successful bonds between adopted children and new families. They also raise awareness of the importance of gradual, healthy and respectful social, community and family integration in the relationship between parents and children.