I received the papers confirming her registration today…
Well, technically, I received them on Monday but they had misspelled her name, so I called them right away and they changed it and sent me the new papers.
Registration after a planned unassisted pregnancy and birth is not an easy thing to do by yourself here in Quebec. Though the law doesn’t ask for medical papers etc. the government doesn’t make it easy to go that route. For those I know who have decided to fight the fight, they have had long and drawn out battles and threats of going to court. I was not willing to do that, the stress of not having her registered, having problems getting benefits were just not worth the fight for me, neither of course was I willing to go to the hospital or see a doctor to get the papers, so I called the midwife friend of mine and asked her to write me a letter attesting that she saw there was a new baby and that I am a mom that had given birth soon before.
However, besides the letter written and signed almost 2 weeks after she was born, all the information shows that it was a planned unassisted birth. There is no doctor’s name, no agpar scores, no transfer information, our address as the birthing place and I wrote my name in the space that asks the name of the person that helped me deliver.
So it is done, getting the letter feels somewhat like a completion of the birth. I can now travel with my daughter without worry, we can breath and relax knowing that everything is done.
(5 weeks old)
Congrats. That has to be a relief. She is SO cute.
She’s a beautiful little soul.
Lovely to see another ec’ing, unschooling naturally living family 🙂
Blessings
Gina x
Congratulations! Your daughter is a beauty! Greetings from Poland from a mom-to-be. 🙂
oh that face is just adorable!
Ah yes it can be such a pain, all that official stuff–I had a midwife assisted homebirth 6 years ago and it was STILL really hard to get her a social security number, which we needed in order for her to get on our health insurance, etc. They couldnt understand that she didnt have a hospital birth certificate or shot records (we dont vax). We ended up having to take him to the pediatrician just to confirm that yes he was indeed a real person! Silly.
Yay! Congrats and welcome, Wila!
That is great to read a story not dissimilar to my own. I haven’t even put my second birth down on paper yet and it happened almost a year ago. Dearest Kaya is 1 year old on 31st March. Almost exactly a year ago to the very day my home birth midwife pulled out on me when I was 36 weeks pregnant. Considering I gave birth to my first child(Gwendoline, now almost 3) at 38 weeks, I was completely stunned.
Having an unassisted birth had definitly crossed my mind but I had decided to have a midwife present.
What a position to then find myself in, at 36 weeks, without a midwife!
Thank god, things happen the way they happen and for a reason. It turned out to be the most strengthening experince of my life. I won’t write about my labour/birth experience now as I need to consider it but will post it on my blog(http://naturalmotheringinthe21stcentury.blogspot.com/) soon as I’m so inspired to cme across this site this evening.
I just wanted to share with you that after Kaya was born at about 01.30 on a Tuesday morning with only Neil my partner and the dog present(Gwendoline woke at the sound of his first cry) we didn’t contact anyone till the Friday so came up against all kinds of complications with regard to registering his birth.
The Public Health Nurse, as they are called here in Ireland, was perfectly ok with me and just happened to arrive, unexpectedly of course, when I was breasfeeding Kaya and could plainly see I was a woman who had recently given birth(I was blooming)The problem started when the paperwork had to be filled in and there were too many blanks. The Director of Public Health Nursing sent the same Nurse back the following day to check I had in fact given birth, by asking me to open my legs, I told here politely where to go! She understood how I felt about the whole thing. She then asked politely if I minded if she could at least check to see that Kaya was in fact a boy. She did and no, he didn’t pee in her face!
Must go and start to write down my birth story now while it’s on my mind. I wrote a very brief tale of Gwendoline’s birth on my blog. I’ve been so lucky. Both births were relatively quick, uncomplicated and yes, pain free.
Welcome to earth Wilhelmina! How’s she doing now?
Blessings.
Fran
I had a UC/ partial UP, and I had a very similar experience with getting my son’s birth certificate and social security card in TX. The county clerk asked me about 3 times “who delivered the baby” before she realized that I understood the question and “me” was my answer, lol. I also had to provide written statements from family members that I had in fact been pregnant, along with photographs. Very interesting experience.