Why would they leave the "name of hospital" blank on on my birth certificate?

Question

Why would they leave the "name of hospital" blank on on my birth certificate?

Answer 1

Mine's missing too, on the amended birth certificate things are omitted (most notably our original identity).

Have a look and see if there is a 'Dist Code' on it; that can give you a clue as to which hospital you were born in.

Answer 2

you may not have been born in a hospital..i wasnt...my brother was born in one and doesnt have a listing under his either..so who knows...

Answer 3

Sunny nailed it. Your BC after adoption is missing info. All mine says is my name, date and place of birth and my aparents names, dates and places of birth.

I had no clue until this year that non adopted people have more info on their BC than I do.

Answer 4

Our daughter was born in a cabin in the woods when it snowed. The hospital is not named on her certificate as she wasn't born in one.... Her date of birth is a guess based on the fact that it snowed where the cabin was on that day in the year birth mother said she was born....

Answer 5

If you are adopted, it's true that your amended birth certificate may or may not include the usual items found on a birth certificate.  Sometimes details aren't just left off, they are actually changed -- including the date of birth.  Certain states were once pretty notorious for this.

My amended birth certificate actually contains everything found on a regular birth certificate in California, but I have found that mine is in the minority.

Answer 6

Hi Stevie,

If you are an adoptee, your original birth certificate was replaced with an amended one when you were adopted.  The original one does include the name of the hospital if you were born in one, along with the name of the doctor, the date & place of birth, etc.

When deciding what information to include on the amended birth certificate, some adoptive parents prefer to have the minimal amount of information left on.  Typically just their own names and the name of the child, usually changed to suit the people adopting.  Leaving factual information on it may or may not have been presented as an option to the adopting parents.  (FYI - It is not legally required to omit or change any info on the amended one.  It's more of a situation where adoptive parents assume that whatever the social worker or attorney suggests must be required.  They may not even be aware that it is perfectly legal to leave information intact.)

You ask why the name of the hospital might have been left off.  Although I have not heard an adoptive parent admit this, my suspicions are, particularly from the baby scoop era, that it had to do with some adoptive parent's desire to reduce the chances that the adoptee would later be able to trace his/her natural family that way.  Hospitals often have records of babies born on each specific day.  Omitting names of the hospital and doctor also leaves the possibility open of changing the city of birth on the amended certificate which is what happened in my own case.  Again, done out of fear or ignorance rather than any logical reason why.  Some adoptive parents may feel that trying to delete or rewrite information makes the adoptee more "their" child, and less the natural family's.

It's not right and it's not fair.  If you or anyone else would like to help restore rights of adoptees to their original birth certificates, please join us for the demonstration at the National Conference of State Legislature’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans July 22, 2008.  See link for further details.  Thanks.

Hope this helps answer your question.

julie j

reunited adoptee

Answer 7

They may have forgotten it. Do you know were you were born, ie city and state? you can start to call around the hospitals and they may have a record of your birth.

Answer 8

Ask your parents or whatever adult was there when you were born.

Answer 9

maybe you were born at home or on the way to the hospital? ......hmm.....ask ur mum

Answer 10

Like Laurie, I was also adopted in California. My amended birth certificate includes the hospital I was born at, but doesn't have many of the other details most birth certificates contain, such as time of birth, birth weight, etc.

Good luck finding out your own story~

Answer 11

I cant speak for adult adoptees, but in many states now, when children are adopted through the state, lots of details are included in the background summary. Details like DOB, birth weight, APGAR scores, head circumference, bio mom's age at the childs birth, health history from birth to adoption, any known background of bio parents and their family health concerns... with all of these details, identifying info has to be left out. The family members names, hospital, schools the bio parents attended - things like that have to be excluded. Adoptive parents get a copy of this info. Younger adoptees might want to discuss with their parents, and ask them if they have that info.

Answer 12

If you're adopted, you don't have a real birth certificate, you have an 'amended' one.  They leave most interesting details off that certificate.

Answer 13

Were you born at the hospital for sure?

Not a home birth?

Ask your mom and dad, maybe they just skipped over it.

Answer 14

mine was not left blank but the address where my adoptive parents were living when I was born was listed instead. Its yet another way to hide truth from adoptees.