There’s a lot of celebration around adoption when it comes to adopted children and families, but a great deal of shame and stigma around the birth mothers. The Cradle ­– a little adoption agency with a big ambition – wanted to remove the stigma from birth mothers. Because when birth mothers are stigmatized, women don’t see adoption as a choice. So we set out to change the way we talk – and think – about adoption, by giving up the phrase “giving up for adoption” – a phrase that frames birth mothers as failures for not parenting their own children.