What would you do if your pregnant best mate asked you to take her child for adoption?

[fairylightfree]

If you had been trying unsuccessfully for a baby for a long time? What if the best mate was a godmother to your child and likely to be in your life for years to come and she had fond herself with an unwanted pregnancy? What if she said she couldn't have a termination?

Is there anyone here who has experience of this or inter-family adoption?

I should add, this is correct as far as I kmow, but I'm not an expert! Private adoption agencies may have different rules.

I was adopted by my grandparents and grew up knowing everything. Till I was about 7 years old I have 2 mums - a mummy (my biological mother) and my mum (my grandmother) and my granddad. This was normal to me as it was how I had grown up. Then my biological mother had another child and that baby was given to her sister to bring up and then another sister. This lasted for approx 6 months and then there was a falling out between the biological mother and her sister and she took the baby back and gave her to my grandparents.
Are you still with me?
Then my grandparents legally adopted us both and we called them mum and dad from then on and then referred to her as our sister and the rest of our aunties as sisters from then on.
I believe that children growing up knowing the truth can deal with most things but I am not sure about the adults involved...

If you unofficially adopted (i.e babysat for a few months), then, after time you would have an excellent case for a formal adoption provided ss didn't think the child was at risk.

This kind of thing has happened in my family - sisters bringing up their nieces/nephews or someone else adopting a child of less well-off relatives. The fact that there is always contact between families does cause problems, and if the adopted child has siblings who live with birth family then it is even more complicated. In theory it sounds wonderful, and maybe with the right support and open discussion it could work, but from what I have seen, the child will be either resentful, or stuck between two families and end up with divided loyalties.