Quantcast
Channel: The Man-Nurse Diaries
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 25

Do I sign my kid's birth certificate? Do you know any lawyers?

$
0
0
In the past, I've signed my children's birth certificates as the "attendant". This is not something I really ever planned to do. I think it originally just sorta happened. You go downtown and find the vital statistics people in the basement of the courthouse where they create these arcane documents, and when you say that you didn't have a licensed medical attendant, and there's an empty line to be signed, somehow you end up signing as the father and as the attendant.

I also vaguely recollect a midwife claimed once that whoever cuts the cord (this being, she also claimed, the only 'medical' act that occurs in many home births) is the attendant. But that's probably false—on both counts. It still probably reinforced my mental justification for signing.

Now I'm not sure that's a wise thing to do. It might have been fine when I was an unlicensed nobody, but now that I'm subject to the Nurse Practice Act I'm afraid I could be accused of practicing nursing outside of a licensed facility. Or practicing medicine, that old standby. it just seems I shouldn't have my name on a public record in the capacity of a birth attendent. I've never had a felony. I've heard those things stay on your permanent record.

This could be a viable alternative.
But wouldn't family be exempt? I would assume it would keep me exempt just like before. Assuming I was ever exempt. Did I say I signed anything? I meant hypothetically. My, uh, friend signed it.

I'm just not sure what the alternative is. Would my wife sign as attendant? Should it just be left blank?

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 25

Trending Articles