Theoretical question about registering a birth.

[FlamingoAndJohn]

I’m reading a book at the moment where a girl has got pregnant and the resulting baby is registered as being her parents baby and brought up to believe that her mother is her sister.

Now I know I couple of people who have grown up to discover their sister was really their mum. But my question is about registering the baby.

I’ve never had to register a birth but is there any proof that the baby is actually yours? Could I stroll into the registrars office tomorrow with a newborn and claim it to be mine? Do they check?

when we registered dc births 6-10 years ago, we were asked for place and time of birth and the registrar accessed a list of births in that hospital and matched us up to the appropriate one. I imagine that midwives and GPs caring for women whip give birth at home can also add to three list the registrar was accessing. you wouldn't be on that list if you refused all medical attention like a crazy survivalist type, but I imagine someone who was unwilling to be given a checkup post birth would probably not want to succumb to the System by getting a birth certificate anyway.

you can't just stroll in and register a birth. not least because that would make life too easy for baby snatchers.

At my register office I didn't need anything, the website said it'd be helpful if parent bought ID but not necessary. The details were on a computer as I gave birth at a birth centre. But if you said you had a free birth with no antenatal care (some choose this but it's veryyy uncommon), then you could register. So this could happen.

Ginfordinner when my current passport expires I might go for that. I got my passport because I needed it (or rather photo id) to get married and they wouldn't accept the out of date one. So ironically my passport is in my maiden name so I have to take my marriage certificate everywhere with my passport if I am using it for id.

Officially births are on record before you register them though, so you're probably not letting the registrar know you had a baby, you're confirming it and recording their name. It's probably even automated now, so to register a baby as your own you'd have to know the details and probably fake your name anyway, so you'd just be registering someone else's kid.
If a girl gives birth without seeing a medical professional and then tries to refuse medical checks, then I would think the police and social services would become involved when she tried to register the baby. It is possible for a baby to be born in secret and be unregistered though. Scary if you think about it.

It would probably have been easier for previous generations, pre-WW2, when giving birth at home would have been more common and there were no computerised records and less official involvement than there is now.

I can’t remember if we were asked to show ID when we registered our DC.

But the registrar did check our details on the computer - we said who we were, which hospital I’d given birth in and when, and the registrar checked that against some list of births on their computer.

I don’t know how it would work if you turned up with a newborn and they didn’t already have a record of you giving birth (say an unattended home birth?). I would imagine it would be a bit more complicated that way?

In this story the birth takes place in the 60s so no computer records and more likely to give birth at home.

I guess you could have women who live in certain communities, travellers or ‘off grind’ who might well not be registered with a GP or see a midwife.
I know someone who had a surprise baby so had no prenatal care.

It depends how long ago it was. It wasn't uncommon for this to happen in the 30s - 60s.