Each year in Kentucky, approximately 700 to 800 children are born in locations other than regular birthing hospitals. Some children are born at the mother's home or another person's residence; some are born at non-birthing medical facilities; others are delivered at a variety of unexpected locales due to emergency situations. Whether or not a birth was planned at its place of delivery, the birth must be registered with the Office of Vital Statistics (OVS). Registering a birth record with OVS is the responsibility of the person who attended the delivery. Births that occur outside regular birthing hospitals usually are attended by licensed or unlicensed midwives, licensed physicians or registered nurses; however, others - such as family members or emergency medical personnel - may assume this role.
New OVS now has birth packets available for your convenience. Birth packets include a copy of the Homebirth Guide, Birth Worksheets and the Birth Application. Click on the appropriate link below to download a packet.
LIVE birth packet
multiple birth packet
Stillbirth packet
Home births and births in locations other than a regular birthing facility can be registered one of two ways depending on the credentials of the person who attended the delivery.
Kentucky licensed certified professional midwives (LCPMs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs) or medical record clerks at non-birthing hospitals may submit birth records through KY-CHILD (Kentucky's electronic birth registration system). Conversely, all other attendants, as well as LCPMs, CNMs and medical record clerks without access to KY-CHILD must register the live birth with OVS using the appropriate paper forms with accompanying required documentation.
Note: Whether a homebirth is registered electronically through KY-CHILD or with hardcopy documents, all required data and forms must be sent to OVS
within five working days of the date of the delivery (KRS 213.046 (2) (4)).
Homebirth Registration through KY-CHILD
This option is open only to LCPMs, CNMs and birth clerks with KY-CHILD user accounts created through the Kentucky Online Gateway (KOG). For information on how to register as a user for KOG and KY-CHILD, please refer to the links below in the Documentation section or call the Office of Application Technology Service (OATS) toll free at (877) 545-6175. Instructions for data entry and downloadable versions of all required forms are available on the KY-CHILD site itself (see below). All data and forms necessary to register a homebirth may be entered electronically by all KY-CHILD users.
Information on how to obtain licensure as a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in Kentucky is available with the Kentucky Board of Nursing at (502) 429-3300 or toll free at (800) 305-2042. The Kentucky Birth Coalition at (502) 465-5422 also provides general resources pertaining to homebirths.
For LCPM, CNM or birth clerks who are not registered users of KY-CHILD and who work with medical facilities considered to be non-birthing, must follow the procedures outlined below for filing births with hardcopy documents.
Homebirth Registration with Hardcopy Documents
All attendants, licensed or not, who do not have access to KY-CHILD must register births by submitting hardcopy documents. The following documents and information ordinarily are required by OVS for birth registration outside the KY-CHILD system:
A Live Birth Worksheet (VS-2WA), fully completed, signed and dated (with Multiple Live Birth Attachment Worksheet (VS-2WB) for every live birth after the first live birth)
Evidence of the mother's pregnancy
Evidence that the child was born alive
Evidence that the mother was present in Kentucky on the child's date of birth
Detailed instructions for registering a birth using hardcopy documents are found in the
Guide for Homebirth and Non-Birthing Facility Registration. A printed version of the guide will be mailed to you upon request by calling the OVS Vital Events Unit supervisor at (502) 564-4212.
Note: All documents for birth registration are subject to review by the Office of Vital Statistics. Acceptance or rejection of a document is based on its degree of compliance with Kentucky statutes, regulations and OVS policy or at the discretion of the Kentucky state registrar.
If any part of the required evidence is not available and the Kentucky state registrar is not able to verify the facts of birth, the homebirth may be registered only by means of an order of the Kentucky court of competent jurisdiction.