Middle Tennessee Mother Battling Governmental Red Tape To Get Birth Certificate After Home Birth

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

Middle Tennessee mother Brianna King has been battling red tape for a year in her efforts to obtain a birth certificate for her son who was born at home.

“Between my recovery from birth, trying to bond with our baby, and a huge amount of life drama around this time, applying for a birth certificate slipped through the cracks. It wasn’t until after our son was over a year old and my husband had returned from a 10-month deployment that we applied for a birth certificate,” King told us. “It has now been over a year and we still do not have a birth certificate for our now 2-year-old due to bureaucratic red tape surrounding what they view as acceptable forms of documentary evidence.”

A lifelong Tennessean, King grew up hearing her mother talk about her great experiences giving birth at a birthing center in Hixson.

“The center had closed down when I was a young child. I knew I did not want a hospital birth when I was pregnant with my first child in 2010. It was then that I discovered the option of home birth,” said King.

With the help of a midwife in Chattanooga, King gave birth to her first child in August 2011. When it was time for her second child to be born, King had moved with her husband to the Nashville area and used a different midwife, giving birth at home again in April 2013.

King later filed for divorce in 2016 to escape an abusive marriage and four years later met her current husband, Jonathan Braden, a 19-year member of the Tennessee National Guard who has been deployed three times.

Facing financial adversity in 2021, Braden and King felt they could not afford to hire a home birth midwife to assist with the birth of their first child together.

“Due to mold toxicity induced breathing issues I had been having for a number of months, I could not wear a mask for very long and preferred to not do so at all,” said King, referring to the Covid-19 mandates at the time that had women wearing masks while giving birth in a hospital. 

“Home birth was naturally the best option for me. I began researching unassisted home birth. My husband and I quickly decided we would opt for this.”

King had a successful and uneventful, unassisted home birth on May 6, 2021. Wyll Holland Thomas Braden was born after approximately three hours of labor in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

In July 2022, King applied for a delayed certificate of birth. 

According to the rules of the Tennessee Department of Health’s Division of Vital Records and Statistics, four minimum facts must be established by “documentary evidence” in order for a delayed birth certificate to be issued. These are: The full name of the person at the time of birth, the date of birth and place of birth, the full name of the mother, and the full name of the father if the mother was married at the time of conception or birth.

King was initially told by a novice employee at Nashville’s Office of Vital Records that she would need to hand over her son’s medical records as documentary evidence of his birth. When King asked to speak to someone who had been there longer she was eventually given a supervisor’s email who never responded. The supervisor, Sheila Williams, quit a few weeks later.

King called the office repeatedly over the course of many months trying to get status updates and to ask what could be used in place of medical records. It took contacting her state representative – Rep. Robert Stevens – before anyone returned her calls.

In an email to Williams in August 2022, King expressed concern about providing the entirety of her son’s medical records citing Supreme Court cases that deal with the issue of medical privacy. 

“It is one thing for a provider to share they have seen an individual for medical care, but it is a completely different thing to provide an individual’s entire medical record,” she wrote.

After much back and forth, lawyers for the Office of Vital Records informed King that whatever she submitted had to list her son’s full name at birth, date of birth and place of birth.

“I submitted Wyll’s PKU testing which had all the information, with the exception that it did not specifically say “Wyll was born at X address.” It simply had our residential address listed. It also did not have his full name (only first and last). They came back and said it didn’t have his place of birth,” said King.

Even her son’s medical records did not have his full name or place of birth listed. King was then told that his Nurse Practitioner could submit an affidavit attesting to the facts of his birth.

“I pointed out that she was not physically present at his birth and did not see him for 4 or 5 days after birth, so how could she in good faith attest to that?” said King.

In May, King was told that she and her husband would have to take the matter to court, something that may cost them hundreds of dollars.

King has since given birth to a second son at home, Kolby Piper Quinn Braden, with only her husband in attendance. 

“We are still trying to get through gathering all the paperwork needed for applying for a birth certificate in between working and taking care of our two children,” King told us.

King was shocked to find that the Rutherford County Health Department’s list of documents needed for a standard application for a birth certificate states that photos of a mother “without clothing” can be submitted.

This time around King has two notarized affidavits from people willing to attest that they saw her pregnant and that she gave birth on June 13th, a utility bill for proof of address, and has requested her newborn’s medical records. She will also be submitting photos from before and after birth with time and date stamps.

“But this is seriously all a major hassle given the fact I have a 2 year old and a newborn. I want to be able to bond with my baby… not have to be wrapped up in gathering a bunch of documents, scheduling appointments for submitting the application,” said King. “I had to go in person just to pick up the paperwork because it isn’t available online.”

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.