Self Notification of Birth 💥

⭐️WHICH DETAILS DO YOU NEED TO NOTIFY A BIRTH YOURSELF???⭐️

⭐️So, in the UK it is a legal requirement to *notify* the birth of a baby within 36 hours of their birth to the Child Health Information Service.

This is different to *registering the birth* and assigns an NHS number to the baby as well as notifies the ‘system’ that there is a new human in the UK.

⭐️Anyone who attended the birth can notify it, including the birthing person themselves.

⭐️A midwife usually does the notification of birth (it is our legal requirement if we have attended) and can also notify a freebirth if in attendance within 6 hours of birth. If you had a freebirth and don’t want midwife attendance after the birth, you may well decide to notify the birth yourself.

Perfectly legal.

⭐️HOWEVER, sometimes the people receiving the notification of birth at the local Child Health Information Service (the agency that manages notifications amongst other things) is reluctant to notify a birth in this (to them) very unusual way.

It helps to lay the groundwork by finding out the Child Health Information Service details and possibly contacting them too before the birth .

⭐️Finding out the details is sometimes tricky, often even Heads of Midwifery are not familiar with the details as generally notification is a automated computer process in the NHS.

⭐️Once you have the details and you have given birth, you can email them, phone them or write to them (recorded delivery is preferred). Here is a little template of the details they will require from you:

About the birthing person:

⭐️Name

⭐️DOB

⭐️Address

⭐️NHS Number

About the Baby:

⭐️Sex

⭐️First Name (can just be male or female, you don’t have to decide there and then)

⭐️Surname

⭐️Date of Birth

⭐️Time of Birth

⭐️Birth Weight

⭐️Birth Order (as in singleton, twin, triplet etc, and whether first, second etc of a multiple birth)

⭐️Gestation

⭐️Suspected Congenital Abnormality - Yes/No/Uncertain

⭐️Ethnic Category

⭐️Live or Still Born

Make sure you get acknowledgement of your notification and ask to be notified of your little ones NHS number they will be assigned.

⭐️Hey presto, your baby is official now⭐️

Caveat: The notification WILL trigger a notification of birth to the NHS, and may therefore also trigger contact…..be prepared. I’m yet to find a surefire way to stop that happening 🙄