Dear adopting and fostering parents and those who support them,

I need you to know about my guest today, Dr. Julia Bledsoe. When we began our adoption journey, we did not know people like her existed, and I cannot tell you how profoundly helpful it would have been to have access to her expertise both during and after the adoption application process. Some of the most difficult questions we needed to tackle but felt hugely ill equipped to answer, were related to understanding the risks associated with in utero trauma and prenatal substance exposure. We had no clue how to compare the impacts of alcohol and drug use, the differences between types of drugs and the expected long term effects on development. We so desperately wanted to ensure we were signing up for something we could handle well, but that's a tough thing to do when you don't have the information required to articulate those boundaries.

If you're in a similar position, or want to know what adoption medicine all entails, this episode is going to be very enlightening!

Julia Bledsoe, M.D., is a board certified pediatrician at the Pediatric Care Center at UWMC-Roosevelt and the Center on Human Development and Disability at UWMC and a UW professor of General Pediatrics. She also works as a faculty pediatrician at the UW FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) Clinic, the longest standing FAS center in the US. She earned her M.D. at the UW. She lectures and teaches on topics related to international and domestic adoption, especially as these overlap with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Dr. Bledsoe specializes in adoption medicine: the care of children and families touched by adoption. She strives to create active partnerships with her patients to achieve the best possible outcomes. Her work with the Center for Adoption Medicine includes: pre-adoption consultations, on-call travel support and pediatric care for fostered and adopted children. To learn more, check out their website or read more about Dr. Bledsoe's work here. 

If you've subscribed to my podcast, you will have heard about my online course for couples who are in the process of adopting. You can access Adoption: What to do while you wait at 50% off for a limited time if you enter the coupon code ADOPTSTRONG.

If you haven't had the chance to listen to the rest of our adoption series on Parenting in the Trenches, please download those episodes into your listening list! We love it when our community of parents grows!

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Karen