Homebirth Birth Certificate PITA... a year later

[annettemarie]

I am so frustrated! Daniel was born at home on 4/29/07. The midwife's apprentice came a week later to do the heel stick and get the birth certificate info. Except she accidentally put the date she came to my house a week later as his birth date. She also listed my husband as the IV instead of the III. Inconvenient, but not a huge deal.

So, it took me a while to find the time, energy, and memory to get the thing notarized and send in a copy of the little birth cert the midwife gave us.

They won't accept it. They want an immunization record--we don't immunize-- or a doctor's record showing the date of birth--which maybe I guess we could finagle, but what would it show? That we told the doc he was born that day? I have my labor record as well, but frankly, I'm a little reluctant to send my personal medical documents to the PA Dept. of Health.

The lady doesn't know what to do because it was a homebirth and because "I waited so long to file." I've got 4 kids. I didn't even notice the date was wrong until close to his first birthday. We have tons of Amish here. I can't believe she doesn't know what to do with a homebirth. And I don't see why it taking me a year to send it in should even be an issue. There was no date saying you had to do it within a certain amount of time, and I did exactly what I was supposed to do.

t's always something.

[janasmama]

It is annoying. When I went to get ds SSN I had traveled over an hour and then couldn't get it b/c I needed medical records that stated his birth date rather than the birth certificate. The only reason we even had any medical records was b/c he ended up in the NICU.

Totally ridiculous b/c the medical people only write down what you tell them...they don't check any papers whereas the mw was there when she wrote down the date! ARgghh!

[DreamsInDigital]

I'm having trouble getting my DD's SSN as well because we don't vax and have never taken her to the doctor. What a PITA!

[annettemarie]

Now, we got a SSN with no problem. Sigh.

I guess I could call my doc and ask her to write something down that says "Annette tells me Daniel was born on Sunday, April 29, 2007. I believe her and you should too, because I am a doctor."

[My*Scorpio]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I guess I could call my doc and ask her to write something down that says "Annette tells me Daniel was born on Sunday, April 29, 2007. I believe her and you should too, because I am a doctor."

[earcher]

I had a similar problem with my twin homebirth. It got shoved in a "to do" stack on someone desk b/c they couldn't figure out how to enter it into the system. Then they "lost it" Then they found it again. FINIALLY I got someone to enter it and take responsibility for it and they enter my one twins name wrong.....grrrrr and then it got send to SSI so her SS card was wrong too. So then we had to "return" the birth certificate b/c the state won't issue the birth certificate more than once without the old one - but SSI won't issue a card without a correct brith certificate. WHAT A MESS. They asked for immunization records too. My response was "I can't give you that....what else will you accept?" We finally got it worked out.

Now they sent me the "short version" which unlike my singleton doesn't list palce of birth OR the fact that theya re twins - which seems rediculous to me! 18 months later I am still trying to verify if they have things correct!

[janasmama]

Uggh. And you have to be so nice and sensitive with your tone with these people otherwise the security officers will have you removed. At our SS dept. we can't even have our cell phones turned on (they literally check it) and they check your bags.

[ee_lime]

Originally Posted by janasmama

Uggh. And you have to be so nice and sensitive with your tone with these people otherwise the security officers will have you removed. At our SS dept. we can't even have our cell phones turned on (they literally check it) and they check your bags.

LOL...yeah they also have posters on the wall reminding you that these are federal employees and if you hurt them you will go to federal prison.

[AngelBee]

So crazy.

[annettemarie]

ARGH! So they finally called back on Friday, and they still want something from a doc. They also said they would accept a notarized affidavit from my midwife. Problem is her phone has been busy since Friday morning. I have no idea how to get in touch with her.

[annettemarie]

Wait, I do actually have a question. If I can't get in touch with the midwife, what can I ask my doc for? She's pretty reasonable and would probably work with me. The letter from the Dept. of Health says "an immunization record or doctor's record showing the requested date of birth." I don't have the former and I am unsure what the latter would be. I really don't feel like I should have to give out my child's private medical records to the PA Dept. of Health, so I am looking for the most innocuous documentation possible.

[annettemarie]

I got a hold of her and she's going to take care of it! I my midwife.

[Full Heart]

I had the same exact thing happen and that was what I was going to suggest. After I called like a million people they finally told me only the mw could fix it. So thats what she did. My bc was in the mail 2 weeks later. It took a year as well. I think the gov just likes to make mothers crazy lol. Kinda like kids doing crank calls. lol

[knitted_in_the_wom]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I guess I could call my doc and ask her to write something down that says "Annette tells me Daniel was born on Sunday, April 29, 2007. I believe her and you should too, because I am a doctor."

LOL!

BTW...off topic, but I had almost exactly this same comment about our local public school require all parent volunteers to submit a notarized statement saying that they haven't been involved in child abuse in any way. Yeah...that's meaningful. "Jenn tells me that she has never been charged with child abuse, and I have verified her signature. I don't really know if she has ever been charged with child abuse, but her signature is authentic, so you should believe her because she paid me $25 to notorize the signature. Signed...random notary public."

Yeah. I was abused by my parents, and I'm SURE they would sign a statement saying that they weren't guilty of child abuse with no qualms whatsoever. Go pull records in New York State, and you will find a series of "founded" child abuse charges.