Birth registration in Victoria

Hi,
i'm kaz and my partner is ky. We're almost 24 weeks along now following IVF earlier this year. Although i've felt pretty ordinary for most of it, we both feel very lucky and are incredibly excited - as are our families!

My question for anyone out there who knows and can help relates to registration of Birth in Victoria. As i understand it, current ridiculous Victorian law does not recognize my partner as a parent of our baby - which makes me soooo angry.....but that's another story.....I was wondering if there is anywhere on the birth certificate that we can put her name down? I think the form only says 'Father' - we were thinking of just putting her in there and seeing if anyone noticed! Any thoughts?

We will be seeking a parenting order for her immediately following the birth.

The other thing - if we wanted to use her name as the surname - can we do that? Or does the surname have to relate to one of the parents listed on the form (assuming we can't put her on it)? Or do we need to change the name by deed poll later if we wanted to use her surname?

Any help on how people have gone about things would be appreciated.

Cheers,
kaz

Hi kaz,

I'm fairly sure you can put ky down as the informant and as such she will be listed on the birth certificate, even if not as parent like she should be. I like the idea of just putting her as father and seeing if anyone notices! the name 'ky' could be seen as either male or female so you may just get away with it! It's not as if they ask for the gender of the father!

as for surnames, you can give your child any surname you choose, the same as the first name. It does not have to be either parents name, and can even be a completely different one. It's just convention that a child is given the parents' name or names.

Good luck!
hopefully we'll be doing all this soon too...

clark.

OMG! Just do it!!!! Just list Ky as the father - no one checks - do they??

LOL I was just going to list Shel as the father, though if anyone chacked they'd tell me to get real... but whatever, what are they gonna do once its one there :P and the worst they can do is say "no, sorry, we're not putting it on" lol.

OR you could go have the bub in WA lol. Is there a rule saying you have to live in WA to get a WA birth certificate with both mummas names on it?

I'd list her as the father too, if anyone questions it, just fight your case then!??

She does have to sign it all though & I think there are fines for falsely filling in forms, but just say you didnt know Father meant only a male could sign it!???

Thanks for info and comments everyone.

Am having a caesarian due to medical reasons. We did actually contemplate driving to Canberra for the caesarian, as the ACT laws also allow for listing of 'parent' rather than just father, which does include a non-biological mother and automatically assigns parenting rights. As much as that would be a good thing we have decided to stay here.

I contacted the registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Victoria who said that we could list Ky as an 'Informant' (sounds all very espionage!) on the birth certificate (doesn't mean any parental rights but at least her name is on there). So we'll still have to get the parenting order after the baby is born. Also, for anyone who is wondering, the surname can be whatever you want it to be - doesn't have to be one of the listed parents surnames.

Cheers,
Kaz