No more queueing for new parents: Births to be registered in hospital by staff
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 @ 11:57 AM
NEW parents will soon no longer have to queue up at the Civil Registrar's office to obtain a birth certificate thanks to a forthcoming law which will allow them to do so in the hospital before the mother is discharged.
Until now, mums coping with a new baby and recovering from labour had to spend many hours queueing on the street to be able to register the birth - whilst in some towns they were able to get into the Registrar's office almost immediately, this still involved having to travel.
And in some towns, they had to start queueing at around 23.00hrs to be sure they would obtain one of just 30 or 40 tickets given out at 08.30hrs the next morning enabling them to be seen - an ordeal which had to be repeated several times in some cases.
But anyone due to give birth on or after October 15 can heave a sigh of relief, since they will be able to register their baby's birth before leaving hospital.
Births and deaths will be able to be registered online from hospitals or clinics, which have 72 hours to send the information through to the Registrar.
The healthcare staff will be legally responsible for identifying the baby and certifying his or her parentage.
This said, the new law text still does not provide for children born via a surrogate mother to be registered, even if the surrogacy took place in a country where this is legal, such as in the USA.
Where all-male couples want to have children of their own, the only way to do so is via a surrogate mother or 'rent-a-womb' scheme, which is legal in the United States but not in Spain.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com