Exploring Adoption

U.S. Companies that Offer the Best Adoption Assistance

Working Mother magazine published its annual report on the 100 family-friendliest companies in the U.S. (October 2006 issue).

Here’s the breakdown on adoption and infertility benefits:

73 percent of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies offer paid adoption leave, compared to 16 percent nationally.

91 percent of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies offer adoption assistance, compared to 22 percent nationally.

72 percent of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies offer infertility treatment (in vitro) assistance, compared to 28 percent nationally.

Visit Working Mother magazine for an list of 100 Best Companies

For a related article and analysis, see MarketWatch, “Best employers for moms promote leave-taking,” by Kristen Gerencher.

Read a recap Working Mother’s 2005 Best Companies

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore

3 Million Babies Born as a Result of Fertility Treatment

A report released June 21 noted that more than 3 million babies have been born following fertility treatment since the birth of the first in-vitro fertilization child nearly three decades ago.

Jewish Women Have Lower Fertility Rates

According to the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Study, Jews marry later than other Americans, and for Jewish women, later marriage means lower fertility rates. Jewish women, for example, bear 1.86 children compared with other Caucasian women, who bear 2.1 children.

College, graduate degrees and careers are cited as factors that delay Jews marrying and having children at younger ages.

If you're interested in reading a commentary about Jews and adoption, visit This Woman's Work blog entry for November 2, 2005.

Source:
San Diego Union Tribune, “When Jews opt to adopt, help comes from alliance,” by Jane Clifford

Infertility Costs

There's an interesting article in today's Cincinnati Enquirer called "$10,000 babies." The article, by Tim Bonfield, introduces couples who go to extremes to pay for fertility treatment:

• The woman who loved her job, but elected to change jobs because her new employer offered fertility benefits.
• The couples who go to Mexico, Canada or Europe for fertility drugs, and those who trade medications over the Internet with other infertile couples.
• Those who take out huge loans or borrow against their credit cards.

Some of the stats that Bonfield mentions in his article include:

• An estimated 6 million couples per year -- 10 percent of all married people, experience fertility challenges.
• Success rates for first-time in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are going up. Ten years ago, the success rates were 20 percent; now they are 50 percent in women younger than 35.
• Since 1978, when the first "test tube baby" was born in England, over 250,000 children have been born in the United States as a result of fertility treatment.
• Most states do not require health insurers to offer infertility coverage. Only 15 states require at least some fertility coverage (with many restrictions attached).
• Insurers assert that infertility benefits are not medically necessary, saying that offering full benefits would drive up insurance costs for everyone. A spokesman for one insurance company estimated that providing such benefits would increase costs for all employers by 2-3 percent.
• Many employers cover adoption costs but not fertility treatment.

Infertility Statistics

Fertility and Sterility, a journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, published findings from an infertility study sent to directors of 369 clinics or doctors' offices that offer reproductive medicine services; 210 responded.  Here are some of the results, released January 18, 2005:

• One in 10 American couples is infertile.
• About 100,000 pregnancy attempts are made each year using in vitro fertilization (IVF), in which eggs and sperm are mixed in a lab dish and the resulting embryos are implanted in the womb.
• More than 177,000 babies have been born through IVF in the United States.

The clinic directors were asked a series of hypothetical questions about who they would help get pregnant:

• The clinics surveyed turn away 4 percent of potential clients each year
• 28 percent of the clinics surveyed have formal policies specifying who they would accept or deny
• 80 percent of the clinics require clients to meet with financial coordinators
• 18 percent of the clinics require clients to see a social worker or psychologist
• Most of the clinics said they would help a 43-year-old get pregnant
• One in five would refuse single women
• 5 percent don't ask about marital status
• One in four would help a woman who has the AIDS virus, while 59 percent would refuse to treat a woman with HIV
• 3 percent would refuse a blind couple
• 1 percent would refuse Jehovah's Witnesses, who do not believe in having blood transfusions that might be necessary