I don't understand why the assumption that a woman who single parents her child will automatically become less than how she is raised. If a woman comes from a middle class background, a child will be a hiccup in her road, but not a roadblock. She can still get an education, have a career, own a home. A child is not going to cause her to suddenly become someone that is outside of her already established values. I don't understand why the assumption is that a child will ruin a woman, or that because a woman has a baby she will not accomplish what she could. It seems just the opposite to me. A woman who loses a baby to adoption will grieve and must become convinced of her own inadequacy. I would think that to be more debilitating than a year off!Red Elephant. I was a single parent of three after my husband and I divorced. It was hard, but it was doable. No one said easy, and that is your assumption, not what I said. College can be put off a year or so, but a degree can be obtained (I worked at a University that depended largely on Non-traditional students to survive...the campuses are full of them!), career can wait, women do get husbands, all the reasons to surrender are temporary things, but the loss of a child is forever.Vanessa, you didn't answer the question. If you want to ask a question, get your own up there.Red Elephant, with 50% of marriages ending in divorce, the odds are that a LOT of women are going to be single parents. You don't see them lining up to surrender their children, so apparently the vast majority are doing just fine, thank you.