Hospital not allowing mother to leave until...

[laughymama]

..she named her baby?!

An acquaintance of mine told me this the other day. She said the hospital would not allow her sister to leave until she named the baby. Is this even legal? It seems really..weird to me.
Or do you think it was just 'hospital policy' and she didn't realize that she was very much allowed to leave because they insisted she couldn't?

I was thinking maybe it varies from state to state or something like that. I have no idea though. I know here I had a friend birth in a hospital and they hadn't named her daughter yet. She never mentioned having any issues with the hospital because of this. They decided on a name when she was 4 weeks old and filed the paperwork, etc.

Just wondering if anyone had heard of this or could explain it to me.

[laohaire]

I'm sure it was perfectly legal for her to leave, but they didn't know how to deal with the birth certificate or something. And were just completely flummoxed. "But... you HAVE to fill this out before you leave!! You can't leave without it!! We can't fill it until you have a name!!"

Probably if she had pushed the issue she could have left.

It's kind of like some people at the Social Security Administration thinking you HAVE to have vaccination records if you are trying to get a SSN for your home birthed kiddo. You don't. But it's a common misconception.

[soso-lynn]

Here in Canada, you have 30 days to send in the paperwork. If you take longer than that, you have pay 30$ or something like that. The form is two parts, the first being a declaration of live birth from the midwife or doctor (or whoever if a UC). It asks for basic info like time, date, place, name of mother. The birth attendant can send that first. Then, the page is filed out by the parents and includes their full info as well as the baby's name.

I think it is just another example of misinformed hospital employees who mistake policy with law.

[mwherbs]

probably has to do with how birth certificates are done now, and that when a birth certificate is applied for they also apply for a social security card. So not like the old days were an un-named baby boy or girl on the books was no big deal,because too much potential for those records to be used by nefarious folks..I know here the health department gives everyone 7 days (not 7 working days but calendar days) to have the birth cert completed and delivered to vital statistics and if it isn't, even if by mail error it arrives 1 day late then it is a big deal to prove citizenship and address and prenatal records and I don't even remember the list of what they want ... additionally that type of delayed filing only lasts for so long then you have to go to court to get a birth certificate.

[forthebest]

Wow thats just so typical these days! I'm not aware of any laws that state you have to name baby before leaving hospital after the birth, the staff sound like they have no autonomous thought processess and if they can't tick the boxes they don't know what to do. Many parents have not decided on a name till weeks after birth and most hospitals will just put down the surname preceded by Baby so like for example Baby Jones. In UK you don't have to give your child a surname, by law, but people doing the paperwork still have to tick the boxes. To say you can't leave the hospital is very big-brother and I think illegal.

[laughymama]

I just saw one lady online talking about how her hospital even mentioned refusing her if she didn't have the name filled out BEFORE the birth.

It's their policy to have the paperwork all filled out at 28 weeks. If you don't know the gender then you still have to have a boy's name and a girl's name chosen and written down. If you refuse then they apparently say they can refuse you and refer to a different hospital.

What the heck!?

[mirlee]

I looked it up and discovered that it actually depends. While you may be able to leave without providing a name, you will have to name the child within a certain period of time.


Link of interest:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqu...,-7635,00.html

[MeepyCat]

It took us ten days to name our son, and we had to trek back to the hospital to formally register the name when we did. They absolutely let us go without a name.

The thing where they want the naming paperwork filled out at 28 weeks sounds totally ridiculous to me. There are a number of folk and religious traditions in which it's bad luck to name the baby before birth, and a few in which parents deliberately hold off on giving the baby a name for a period of time.

As to the threat to refuse you at the hospital - in the United States, the EMTALA forbids hospitals from refusing emergency medical treatment or treatment to women in labor. If you show up, in labor, and have filed no paperwork at all, if you haven't seen a health care provider of any kind since you learned you were pregnant and simply walk into the ER... they have to take you. They can transfer you to another hospital if they must (there are legit reasons why they might, and "didn't pre-file paperwork" isn't one of them), but I think they have to provide transport.

If a hospital threatened not to discharge me until I'd named the baby, I would tell them good luck getting the insurance company to pay for extended hospitalization and no way in heck would I pay for them to hold on to my healthy baby against my wishes.

[mwherbs]

I looked up Missouri statutes -maybe this is not where she is but your addy- any way it looks like vital records had some statute changes in August 09 there is electronic filing so now- 5 days--is what is allowed and it also looks like it would take a court order to amend the birth certificate for a name change--
maybe I am misreading but that is what it looks like to me...

http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c100-199/1930000215.htm

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http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c193.htm
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[CEG]

Where I used to work as a nurse the hospital was required by law to submit birth certificate requests for all babies born in the facility within 5 or so days (I can't remember the exact number). So they put very heavy pressure on moms to complete everything before they left because when they had let people leave without naming their baby they did not return within the required period and the hospital was in trouble with the state. Not saying it makes sense, but that's why they did what they did.

[umsami]

We almost faced this with DD in NY. It wasn't illegal... but the registrar lady basically listed all of these steps we'd have to go through afterwards....and it was a major major pain. I do think that part of the issue is the whole SSN now....

[Honey693]

The hospital told me I could leave without naming DD, but they'd have to put Baby Girl R on the paperwork and it would be a huge pain for me to change it later. That being said, they were perfectly willing to do that.

[sharr610]

So weird to think something like that would be legal when there are tons of cultures/religions that wait on naming/uttering the name of the baby until a certain amount of time has passed is practiced. It would seem like it would be really disrespectful hospital policy as well.

But, doesn't mean that crazier things haven't happened.

[ledzepplon]

I'm in California and our hospital told us that with ds2. I have no idea if it's legal, though.

[34me]

My mom wasn't allowed to leave until I was named and then they aregued with my parents about the name. They said it was a nick name and they wouldn't put it on the BC. My parents had to get pissy and they are the Cleavers

[caned & able]

I have an aunt who was born at home and her parents did not name for three months...so silly.

I like getting to know my baby and letting the baby choose its name. Is that too much to ask? Parents can go to court to change the name later if they choose, but that is another hassel.

[mrsfru]

It's a "hospital policy" or a vigilante employee who needs to be reported. I experienced a similar psycho-employee who went ahead and sent out paperwork in to the state unfinished (without a middle name), which I then had to dig up the info on how to correct amid a sick baby and recovering from a c-section and weeks of bedrest. Luckily, the lady w/the state felt sorry for me and returned my payment for the "name change". FWIW, we gave him his middle name the day that we got to bring him home (Monday), and Ms. Know It All Who Really Didn't, mailed it all in on Sunday.

Legally, you have ONE YEAR to give your baby a legal name without penalty or extra charges for the birth certificate and I think, 30 days to send in the report of the baby's birth (even if it just says Baby Girl Smith). It isn't the hospital's right to detain you at all.

Stupid people.

mrsfru

[mrsfru]

Originally Posted by Honey693

The hospital told me I could leave without naming DD, but they'd have to put Baby Girl R on the paperwork and it would be a huge pain for me to change it later. That being said, they were perfectly willing to do that.

Yes, our stupid registrar told us this too (the part about it being a pain to change it later)....adding that she said that it would cost us $500 or $1000 to amend it later. In actuality, it should have only cost us $15 if done over 30 days after ds's birth...and the sweet lady at our Vital Records dept. sent me the payment back! Plus, if the registrar had known exactly what to do and had the right phone number, it would have been a simple process. Way easier than dealing with her!

mrsfru

[stormborn]

That's why dd1's middle name isn't the one I wanted. They waited until I went to get food and cornered dh with a similar line.

Dd2 was born at home and it was at least 2 mos before I registered it between the 3 weeks it took us to make a final name decision and the (only!) registrar being on vacation when I finally got downtown to do it. No one gave me a hard time about it unless you count the reg trying to tell me that MY middle name was spelled wrong.

[Comtessa]

Wow! The hospital folks told me this, too. "Baby must be named and in a car seat before it leaves this floor." It never occurred to me to argue with them about the name (though I did about the car seat; ours was installed in the car and I was NOT going to un-install it just for their stupid policy). I should have! DH and I felt like we were in a round of Final Jeopardy - the heat was on, and we HAD to name the baby before we could get out of that place. We had this long list of names that we kept tossing back and forth, scribbled on the back of some hospital form, and every staff person who came into our room was interrogated about the best combination of names. It was the cleaning lady who settled it for us.