registering child's birth

ab7167

I am due to have a baby imminently, but will be having it in a different county to where I live. Hospital will be the JR in Oxford, but we live over the border in Buckinghamshire.

Do I have to register the birth in Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire? Or does it not matter? I'm sure last time when I had a baby (also at JR, but we were living in Oxfordshire at the time) I had to do it in the county where she was born? Just be a bit of a faff having to organise a trip to do it!

feelinggood_2

I wouldn't have thought it would matter - I was due to register the birth of my baby in a completely different County - neither the county of birth or my home county.

tandraig

i believe you have to register the birth in the county the child was born - but if you go on the website www.direct.gov you will get the facts there.

feelinggood_2

You could always phone the registry office you want to register and explain, they were really helpful with me, as I wanted to register the birth late, at a different place, but in the end OH did it!

tiamai_d

If the hospital covers both counties, then they may have different cards. Our county is split and our maternity hospital gives cards that cover all 4 counties. Call the hospital and ask?


Also if you are married to the father, he can register the birth and you don't have to be there.

ab7167

thanks tandraig - apparently you do have to register in the district where the child was born, but if you can't travel you can go to any register office, they will take the details and do it by post. The only material difference appears to be that if you register in the correct district, you will get the birth certificate straight away, if you register elsewhere they have to send it by post which can take a few days. We can travel to Bicester quite easily, so I guess we will probably just travel and register in Oxfordshire. You can register at the JR, but they like to sling you out ASAP, so may not get the chance. A friend of mine had her 2nd child there, she went in about 11am and was home in time for Eastenders!

ab7167

not married to the father, so unfortunatley will have to attend myself. Although I do like the fact that this gives me ultimate control over the name of the sproglet - I can register without OH being there, but he can't without me :-)

tandraig

oh I can beat that ab7167 - a friend of my daughters went into labour at about 6 in morning arrived at hospital at 6.30 had the baby at 6.40 and was home by 10.00!!!!!
a friend of mine went into labour and had the baby within an hour (her first can you believe it!!!!) and the midwife arrived in time to deliver the afterbirth! a quick trip to hospital to get them checked over turned into an all day event as apparently the staff were rushed off their feet so they eventually just !!!!!!ed off home and phone the ward to say they would see the doc in morning - and the ward clerk was gobsmaked - no-one had even missed them!!! oops sorry - hijacking your thread - but i couldnt resist!

ab7167

well, my first was a back-to-back 3 day affair, 24hrs official labour. still have slightly hateful feelings towards first timers who manage it in an hour or so. One of my colleagues turned up at hospital with her first, 12 minutes later he was born. I didn't quite hiss as her, but wasn't far off! Hopefully this one will be a bit quicker!

Janepig

ab7167 wrote: »

thanks tandraig - apparently you do have to register in the district where the child was born, but if you can't travel you can go to any register office, they will take the details and do it by post. The only material difference appears to be that if you register in the correct district, you will get the birth certificate straight away, if you register elsewhere they have to send it by post which can take a few days. We can travel to Bicester quite easily, so I guess we will probably just travel and register in Oxfordshire. You can register at the JR, but they like to sling you out ASAP, so may not get the chance. A friend of mine had her 2nd child there, she went in about 11am and was home in time for Eastenders!

This is correct - so you don't actually have to register the baby in the district in which it's born. Unless you want the birth certificate there and then. Both my two were born in a neighbouring county - I could have registered them down the road in my local registry office, but on both occasions we took the trip to the registry office near to where they were born (you couldn't do it in the hospital).

Jxx

Pipling

You might want to check with the hospital as some hospitals have a registrar on site on certain days. The hospital I went to started doing this so when I had DS, I nipped in on the way home, registered him - sorted! Was brilliant as I too live in a different district to where he was born, and this meant I got the birth certificate straight away.