birth cert. info for Indiana

[Batia]

I am wondering if anyone knows what you have to do in the state of IN to get a birth cert. after an unassisted birth?

[shay]

Just call the health department and ask what you need to bring to get a certificate. YOu shouldn't be required to give a so called providers name or info, just tell them that dad caught the baby. Don't give them any more info than they require, you have legal right to have a homebirth in Indiana, the rest of the story is private.

[Fruitful4Him]

When we had our UC we went to the office of vital statistics or some such at the courthouse and it was a slow day so the lady typed it up for us then. She asked a few questions about baby weight, # of prenatal visits and such info that the state collects for statistical purposes but I don't believe it is mandatory. I have heard of some people getting hassled and getting bad info with clerks acting like they don't know how to handle a homebirth so I think it may be good to call ahead to make sure someone who knows what they are doing will be there.

[AbbieB]

DH, baby and I went to the vital statistics office and got one. The most of the folks in the office were a bit baffled by the idea of home birth (weird since I KNOW I was not the only one in town to have one and get a BC this way, that month even.)

We were asked all of the pertinent info and it was done. I left all of the attendant info blank.

One thing you might want to do, make sure that the birth certificate is embossed. They tried to issue one to us that did not have it, like it was an unofficial copy, and we had to remind them to add it. The clerk was a little miffed but did it for us. (She was already miffed at us because she had to redo it 2 times to get spellings correct. )

We did this in Muncie in 2003.

[Batia]

Thanks for the info ladies!! It doesn't sound to hard to do..

[bobandjess99]

It was extremely simple here. The lady was a little flustered, but not rude or mean. She was actually very helpful, and called the main office to find out what to do, and got the forms, and we filled them out, and she went ahead and typed it up right then and offered us a copy, which hospital births dont get for 4-6 weeks after the birth! It was very pleasant and easy.

[Batia]

Where in Northern IN do you live? We live in Northern IN also..

[Constant Gardener]

We're down in Madison and it was super easy. We just walked into the health dept. with the baby and they did one up. They were a little surprised that we weren't Amish, I guess they'd only had Amish do home births before. I was relieved at how easy it was. I love that it has our home address as where DD was born, instead of the hospital.