People think it is a big deal and almost an impossiblity to register a baby born at home. Some people are even under the false impression that it is illegal. Others think that you MUST go to hospital . Here are the facts. If you birth with a licensed midwife, she needs to give you a letter to the Ministry of Interior stating that she was present and assisted at your birth, your name and identity number, date and time of birth, sex of baby, apgar, weight. Also name and identity number of husband if you are married, and address. It is important that it is on her official stationery with her stamp with her licence number. In addition, you need to have a copy of her midwifery license and Form G, Declaration, signed by her lawyer . Also some other proof of your pregnancy, such as an ultrasound, pregnancy follow-up from a doctor, or Tipat Halav. If you only saw your homebirth midwife during your pregnancy, this could be a problem as you need some additional proof of your pregnancy other than your birthing midwife. A letter from family doctor will do as well. If you went to a gynecologist for any bloodwork, make sure you keep the record of your visit and get a note from him. In order to register at the Ministry of Interior, the birthing mother and the baby and the father of the baby all need to come, and the couple must bring their identity cards or passports if they are foreigners. It is wise to register as soon as possible in order to have an identity number for the baby for kupat cholim coverage. Try to do it within 2 weeks at the most. If you need to get other foreign citizenship, then after the registration at the Ministry of Interior, you need to go to your foreign embassy. Call them first and find out what they require. If you used an unlicensed midwife, you will probaby have a problem as she cannot give you a letter for fear of persecution, and the letter will not be recognized as there is no license number. In such a case, you probably will need to bring witnesses to court to prove that this is your baby. This is complicated (without a licenced midwife's letter) so call the Ministry of Interior first and find out exactly how to proceed, as these things change from time to time.

Your other option to register the baby is to go to the hospital within 24 hours of birth and register through them. You need a letter from your licensed midwife giving details of the birth, your names, identity numbers, time,date, apgar, weight, and other medical details like when the water broke, blood type, etc. and any treatments to the baby like vit. K. The baby will be examined by a pediatrician, the new mother will be examined by a gynecologist to certify that she really did give birth (her vagina will be looked at for bleeding and her stomach felt to feel the uterus). Lots of questions and paperwork and waiting around, and this will take usually from 2-6 hours, and then you will be registered when you leave and you can get the maanak lida (birth stipend ). At the current time, all hospitals require you to stay hospitalized for a minimum of 12 hours in order to get the maanak lida. This may change, and hopefully the law about the maanak lida being linked to coming to hospital within 24 hours will be abolished. When you register via the hospital, the hospital gets the entire financial compensation from Betuach Leumi, as if you had birthed there, in the amount of around 7000 NIS . Hopefully this waste of the countries money will change as homebirth will be compensated directly to the woman instead of her having to pay from her own pocket. This injustice must be changed.

If you birth with an unlicensed midwife and choose to go to the hospital to register, again you will have some problems as the birth will be treated as an unassisted “field birth” in unsterile conditions. They will want to give the baby a tetanus injection, and perhaps prophalactic antibiotics. Of course, you can refuse all this, but you must be aware as they may not ask your permission. An unlicensed midwife will probably fear to give you a letter with the birth details as it is illegal for her to do deliveries. However, some hospitals know some of these midwives and will accept their letters.