Personal But Important!

No it’s not true. Your boyfriend would need to be there at the time that the birth certificate was being filled out to sign it.

I am an RN and have worked on the Labor and Delivery floor. From my experience, if you are married at the time of conception and/or birth, the spouse’s name must be entered on the birth certificate. If you are legally separated, that may be a different story (not sure). I have had several mothers become upset over this silly law. The NC Vital Statistics or your hospitals Medical Records Dept can tell you for sure what guidlines your hospital follows in such cases. Also, you can give the child ANY last name (your boyfriend’s). Hope this helps, but I would recommend you contacted your local hospital.

Sorry…forgot to add, if your (ex) spouse denies the child, you can do paternity tests to prove paternity and then, for a nomianal fee add your take off your spouses name and add your boyfriends. OR if your spouse won’t (because they like to be jerks) you can file for child support and then he will surely want a paternity test to get out of paying that :slight_smile:

My husband (soon to be ex) are divorcing because (to make a long story short) he blamed me for our inability to have children. Even though I CAN, I just need medical help. ANYWAYS… we’ve been seperated WAY past the time we needed to be to finalize the divorce… I just haven’t been able to take off work to meet with him to finish it. (We both moved seperate ways right after the initial separation) The question I am trying to ask is such, if me and my boyfriend (will be fiance if I ever get this stupid divorce finalized) happened to have a child before the divorce was official, someone told me that since I was still married I HAD to put my husbands name on the birth certificate even if he’s not the father. Is that true?! I don’t see how you could put a man’s name on a birth certificate KNOWING that he’s not the father. Even if you PROVE that the husband is not the father, do you still have to put his name on the birth certificate if you’re still legally married?

Amanda Lentz EMT-B
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Emergency Communications