When Teresa and Jeff Williams decided to have an unassisted home birth, they had no idea they would be unable to get a birth certificate for their son nearly two years later.
Despite sending a litany of documents to the Washington, D.C., Health Department, the agency has denied the Williams’ requests for a birth certificate and Social Security card for their son, JJ. Now a toddler, the boy has no legal documents at all.
The Williamses live in southwest D.C. with their two young children. Teresa Williams told The Washington Post that she and her husband became interested in home birth after having negative experiences when seeking prenatal care while pregnant with their elder child.
“It was day and night. The midwives actually asked me what I wanted my birth experience to be like versus telling me what it would be like,” Teresa Williams told the Post. “I was actually being heard, and I was actually in control of how the environment was for my child to be born.”
The couple decided to have their daughter, Tamar, at home, assisted by a doula and a midwife. After Tamar’s birth, a home birth company filed the necessary paperwork to get the newborn legal documents.
However, the couple opted to go medically unassisted for the birth of their son, JJ, two years later. When they tried to get a birth certificate for JJ three months after his birth, they learned that they would be required to submit extensive documentation to prove he was their son.
Even though the couple say they submitted the required forms proving that JJ was born alive and in D.C. and that Teresa Williams was pregnant in the first place, the city denied their application. The Health Department told them they could bolster their application with additional medical documents, but because JJ was born at home without medical supervision, the Williamses didn’t have the necessary paperwork.
Without a birth certificate and other documents for their son, the Williams say they have lost nearly $5,000 in tax credits. The family is also low-income and says they worry about losing food-stamp benefits if JJ’s lack of documents is discovered. As a last resort, the couple has been forced to hire a lawyer and file a request for a judge to order JJ a birth certificate.
“It feels like I am an absentee father even though I am here,” Jeff Williams told the Post. “I can’t physically show that my son belongs to me because I have no document. And I might now have to go to court to prove my fathership to my child. And I have been here since day one. I haven’t left.”
The post They Had Their Baby At Home. 2 Years Later, They Still Can’t Get a Birth Certificate. appeared first on Reason.com.
