Awareness and acceptability of child adoption as a reproduction alternative among parents at risk of having another child with sickle cell disease in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited blood disorders that are life-long and associated with lots of morbidities and mortality. Child adoption is one of the reproduction alternatives for reducing the risk for having children with SCD. Awareness and acceptability of child adoption for this indication have not been assessed in our environment.

Objective: To assess the awareness and acceptability of child adoption as reproduction alternative for reducing the risk for having children with SCD among couples with SCD children.

Materials and Methods: Seventy-three biological parents of children with SCD were interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire following consent at the Paediatric Haematology outpatient clinic of ESUT Teaching hospital Parklane, Enugu. Convenient sampling method was used. Data obtained was entered into SPSS version 26 and later exported to SPSS version 29 with which it was analyzed.

Results: Only 2 (2.7%) of the respondents were aware of child adoption as reproduction alternative for reducing the risk for having a child with SCD among at risk couples. Even, after education it was only acceptable to 15 respondents (20.5%). Fifty-four respondents (74%) gave desire for biological children as reason for non-acceptance. 

Conclusion:  Awareness and acceptability of child adoption as reproduction alternative was very low among the respondents. To change these trends, elaborate campaigns and legislative interventions targeted at changing people’s attitude about adoption are needed.