Actually, our most typical birth mother who creates a birth plan and is in contact with the prospective adoptive parents is already a mom to one or two kids and understands the economics involved. That is our best case scenario for a seamless adoption process. But you are right. All too often there is substance abuse, lack of prenatal care, mental health issues with one or both birth parents, etc As for foster parents, they undertake this knowing that until parental rights are terminated, they are at risk of returning the child to the birth family. Everything about this is sad and challenging to everyone involved, so if we invest proactively rather than reactively, a lot of suffering can be ameliorated. Sex education, birth control, universal health care, mental health resources, substance abuse programs, pregnancy job protections, affordable day care and on and on. All of these would be cheaper to support than foster care and the legal system it entails.