what do i have to do to get a birth certificate?

[snailmama]

jeesh louise!

my ds was born at home in november'
my midwife wouldnt sign the birth certificate form because she was under investigation
my husbund signed it
my grandmother signed a notrized form that the child was born in her house

i called vital statistics today to see what the hell is going on and they said
who is your midwife.. i told her... she said oh jeez...
she said i would need a form filled out by a doctor...
the only problem is ds doesnt have a doctor...

what am supposed to do?

[Greaseball]

Don't worry - you will get your cert. No govt wants to take the chance on having one of its citizens go unregistered. They will jerk you around for a bit to punish you for having a child at home, but in the end you will get your way.

Maybe you could try saying you had an unassisted birth with your husband present? Did you see a doc for prenatal care, or anyone else who would be willing to release records? Do you have any photos of you pregnant or giving birth?

Check out http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com for more info; there is some about birth certs somewhere in there.

[Meiri]

What does the actual law say?

If it really does require a doc, do you have one you see as needed who would be willing to help?

[snailmama]

nope...
this really stinks

[Throkmorton]

Take DS to the walk-in clinic and explain that he was born at home, and that you just need a doc to confirm that he exists.

[Chiromom]

I had my last two unassisted in two different states...both times they kept asking for a midwife or doctor and i kept saying I didn't have one. In WI they finally let a chiro sign as the "official" stating that this was indeed our actual child. They had to call the state registrar to get it approved but since irefused to go to a MD, they couldn't make me. In Iowa the state had DH and I sign a statement which we wrote ourselves, swearing that the child was our and born to us. They allowed this only after I refused to see a doctor (there is nothing wrong with my child and I do not want to see a doctor). I wrote about the details in my blog if you want to check it out. (see sig line) Stand your ground and the options will usually open up.

[Trishy]

Moving to Homebirth

[Music-mommy]

Is homebirth illegal where you are? If not, then you could simply go to a walk in clinic, tell the doctor what you need, you don't even need to tell them you had a mw. If it's not illegal to have a hb, then you simply say you had a hb and you need a doc to sign.

Unless you fall on a goof, you shoudln't have a problem.

[prenatal_coach]

Thanks for the info.! Chiromom, I read your blog and had a good chuckle. I have heard that in California it is possible to apply for the birth certificate directly from Sacramento after a year (correct me anyone if I'm wrong).

For my son's [home]birth, our midwife told us we would need a physician's exam within a week (10days?) of the birth in order to get a birth certificate from Los Angeles County. The pediatrician at Kaiser was surprised to see us arrive the next day with our newborn (we had called ahead). Then followed the "your baby's brain could hemorrhage if he doesn't get a Vitamin K shot" speech. Needless to say, that was the first of three doctors visits in his entire life (He's 5 years old now).

Turns out that the post-birth visit was not necessary because there are two cities in the Greater Los Angeles Area which have their own health departments and do their own birth records, and ours was one of them and it didn't require that. (In fact, the person didn't look at any of our records, just took a look at him and told us that we were not allowed to give him a hypenated last name.) So the whole ordeal of getting him into the carseat and listening to medical propaganda was for naught...well, we'll chalk it up to a learning experience!

I do need to look into the requirements for a pregnancy test. As my husband said, why bother going to a doctor for the test if you can avoid it? Amen!

[CandyR]

Chiromom,

I enjoyed your blog about what you had to do to get the birth certificate. I just have one question. This may be silly, but please remember that this will be my first vaginal birth.

What is a tw*tsicle? :LOL Do I need one?