I am on my way to conduct a 2 day training on clinical issues in adoption and so this post caught my eye. As you will read, it is a hot and controversial topic. Wikipedia defines "open adoption" as

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Open adoption means that the natural mother and adopted family know who each other are. Even in an open adoption, the birth parents' legal rights of guardianship are terminated, and the adoptive parents become the legal parents. There are no guarantees that the Adoptive parents will allow any contact at all with the natural mother. Open Adoption means that natural mothers know who the adoptive parents are.[1]In some jurisdictions, the birth and adoptive parents may enter into a binding agreement concerning visitation, exchange of information, or other interaction regarding the child.[2] Far more common are informal agreements, which may change over time as each set of parents' lives progress. As legal guardians, the adoptive parents are responsible for implementing contact arrangeme