'Mother is a social construct'

Episiotomies are no social construct, as I can personally attest. Twice.

Scissors applied to one's genital area to release a big headed baby.... Meh, one simply identifies into that.

Midwife sewing up my fanjo to 'make sure there are two holes'......? Hey, I was more worried about reapplying my lippy.

The biological father does not have to be recorded because it revictimises victims of sexual violence and leaves their children stateless.

The birth mother must be recorded because to not do so is a barrier to maternal health and the prevention of child marriages.

Only with their attendance at the registrar actually.

Elsiebear it is a certificate of a person's birth.

It records the date, place, sex, mother & given name of every child born.
These are key details unique to every person.
Every person of course having being birthed by a woman, its mother.

The majority of birth certificates record the father but not all. For various reasons, the name of the father may not be the man whose genetic material contributed to the fetus before birth.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges that every child should “be registered immediately after birth”

In England this practice of requiring every birth to be registered originated with the 1836 Act for the Registering of Births, Deaths, and Marriages.

Hey, I’m cool with kicking the dads off. No biggie, I’m not here to defend the rights of men.

I’m not cool with changing the recording of the fact of the human a child came out of.

@DuLANGMondeFOREVER only with their permission though.

@ColaFreezePop I agree, all the more reason for it to be changed then.

To clarify I mean to put it simply, why can men be the legal father of a child they have no biological relationship to and women can’t be the mother of a child they have no biological relationship to? Why can father mean male parent or male biological parent and mother can only mean woman who gave birth? I see people keep putting “because it’s a birth certificate” if a birth certificate is only concerned about birth, why even name the father then?

women were the property of the man the woman was married to.

Then why can non married fathers be recorded?

Why do men have the legal right to be known as father of a child they may have no biological relationship to and women aren’t?

Because birth certificates have existed since before paternity could be proved.

Campaign for all fathers to have DNA tests at the registrar If you want to see change.

@Elsiebear90 you like every other poster knows it stems from when women were the property of the man the woman was married to.

@Iggly so why name the father?

@borntobequiet yes.

But words have social and cultural meaning.

The primary purposes of a birth certificate are:

1. State acknowledgement of a child, required for gaining citizenship.
2. A method of tracking child and maternal health.
3. Prevention of sale and abduction of children
4. Prevention of child marriages by recognising mothers.

Because a mother is not just someone who gave birth, there is much more to mothering than giving birth. My issue is mother in regards to a birth certificate referring to whoever gave birth, however, father can be the biological father, partner of the mother, friend of the mother etc. Why do men have the legal right to be known as father of a child they may have no biological relationship to and women aren’t?

It’s called a birth certificate

Why do you think having a specific title that denotes a woman who gave birth is a ‘reduction’ Elsie?

I think of it as an honour, not a reduction.

Under British law the mother is the person who gestates and gives birth to the child, even if the child does not carry her genetic material. So the legal definition is based on biology.
The word Mother can have a social context as well, of course, but it's not relevant in this situation, and doesn't mean there's any need to change the law. Many words have more than one meaning, people just learn to use them in the proper context.

Because if they are married he is compelled to have legal responsibility for the child from birth, and if they are not married he chooses to be legally responsible by going to the registrar.

Same as parent 2 when it’s a lesbian relationship.

Forgot to add, it’s not just about the birth, it is a legal document detailing who is financially and legally responsible for a child.

Why even have the father on the certificate then? If it is only about the birth?

So if the legal definition of mother is the person who gave birth, regardless of whether that’s her biological child or whether she actually parents the child, again that seems to me to reduce “mother” to just someone who gives birth, whereas father can be anyone or anything people see fit, doesn’t have to be the biological father or parent, just any man who is happy to be named as the legal father, that’s what I personally disagree with, there is a lot of flexibility for men legally in terms of fatherhood, but non for women.

Surely all words and ideas are social constructs?

As name says above. BIRTH certificate. A certificate that records the date and place of your birth and the name of the female human you came out of.

Elsie, it’s a birth certificate not a mother’s certificate.