Why the Stillborn Should Have a Certificate of Birth

Copyright by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore My story began 14 years ago. On July 27, 1994, I gave birth to my fourth child. It was my baby girl’s due date. About 15 minutes prior to birth, my beloved child, Cheyenne, died. After a full postmortem evaluation, the pathologist could find “no determinable cause” for her death. I was left with countless questions and few answers. About one week after her death, I received Cheyenne’s death certificate in the mail. What I really wanted, though, was the record of her birth. So I called the vital records office in Arizona to request Cheyenne’s birth certificate. I was told, “You didn’t have a baby. You had a fetus and the fetus died.” I vowed to change this for grieving mothers of the future. For more than one year, I lobbied the Arizona legislature, gathering bipartisan support for the bill that would become the first law enacted in the United States to offer grieving women a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth (CBRS) as an option in addition to the death certificate that was already issued. The bill passed the Arizona State Senate with unanimous support during the 2001 legislative session. Shortly thereafter, Governor Jane Dee Hull signed the bill as she said, “I think we all know that this is something that should have happened long ago for women.” In September of 2001, Dr. Catherine Eden of Arizona Department of Health Services presented me with the first CBRS issued in the United States. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to pass the bill in other states. As of June 2008, the bill has passed in 25 other states, and is being considered in seven more. In the states that don’t have CBRS, the registrar of vital records usually issues some type of death certificate or some legal record of death for all stillbirths. This is the only record the family is able to receive at this time. In addition, families are mandated by state and federal law to pay for the final disposition, funeral or cremation, of the baby’s body after a stillbirth. What does the CBRS (in Arizona, it’s called the MISSing Angels Bill) do? It requires the state’s vital records office to offer – though not require – a “Certificate of Birth, Resulting in Stillbirth” for each stillbirth. The stillbirth must meet the medical/legal definition of stillbirth (naturally occurring, intrauterine death that occurs after the 20th week of pregnancy all the way up to birth). In addition, the CBRS is available only as an optional document to parents; parents who don’t want the document do not receive it. There is a fee attached to the document to ensure that there is no cost to state governments. Why is it important to offer CBRS? There are many reasons, but the most important is the psychological benefits to women who endure the death and the birth of their baby. The state’s refusal to validate the birth is an implicit rejection of the woman’s lived experience. The mother of a stillborn baby must still give birth to her dead infant. One 83-year-old woman who applied for and received her baby’s birth certificate 56 years after her baby’s death, said, “I feel like I can finally die in peace.” This legislation has tremendous value to women. There has been opposition in some states, including by the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood of California, ACLU, NARAL, California Medical Association, and the California American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. These groups are concerned that this legislative movement threatens reproductive freedom for women. We disagree. We assert that this movement is all about reproductive freedom. The “vital center” of America clearly exhibits overwhelming support for the CBRS movement, which, boiled down, is simply about human compassion and dignity. It is not only possible, but demonstrable, that CBRS laws can coexist with laws protecting reproductive freedom. In fact, many pro-choice legislators have supported CBRS bills, as have many national organizations that provide aid to grieving families. These include the MISS Foundation, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, March of Dimes, Mothering Magazine, National Stillbirth Society, and others. Sharon Kaplan, Chief Executive Officer of Planned Parenthood of Delaware, said: “If this certificate helps ease their (grieving mother’s) pain, then we support it. It does not seem to me to be an anti-choice agenda.” We encourage legislators in all states to do what is right for the citizens they represent. Stillborn babies are not inconsequential, nor are their mothers, and they deserve the dignity of existential recognition. (c) 2008 MISS Foundation. All rights reserved. Reach Joanne Cacciatore through her website www.missfoundation.org.

New York Legislators Kill Bill for Grieving Mothers

New York Legislators Kill Bill for Grieving Mothers

Albany, NY (June 26, 2008) — SB8960 would have helped to provide much-needed comfort, dignity, and accurate documentation to women and their families experiencing the death of a baby just prior to or during birth. Yet, despite overwhelming support from individual legislators, including 53 Democrat and Republican sponsors, a powerful minority of reproductive rights activist legislators have “killed the bill” as of 11:00 p.m. on the last day of session. Read more

How Do I Help My Niece - Her Baby Was Stillborn

My niece, suzanne, gave birth Monday, May 12, 2008 to a 6′8″ little boy. The baby was still born. Her pregnancy was fine and she had been to the doctor the previous friday. Baby’s heart beat was strong and she discussed inducing labor with her doctor. They scheduled it for Saturday, May 17th. On Sunday she started to feel not so well and put a call into her doctor. She was given an appt. for the next morning. During her visit they were not able to hear a heartbeat so they did an ultrasound and discovered there was no longer any life in the baby. Read more

I Lost My Unborn Daughter at 5 Months

I know what these people are going through. I discovered I was pregnant in June 2007. It was a surprise, but I had fully accepted this beautiful little life that was to bless our home. The baby was due February 17, 2008. Everything was fine until I got to the fifth month, (20th week) Oct. 2007. I noticed a lack of movement, but I didn’t think anything of it, because the baby did that from time to time. I woke up one morning (Oct. 3), and realized I hadn’t felt any real movement in a while. I was worried, but I had an appointment for an ultrasound later that morning, and I figured everything would be fine. It wasn’t. My body tensed, and my heart dropped the instant I saw my beautiful baby on the ultrasound screen, and I couldn’t see the familiar flutter of the heart beat. I remember asking, “Where’s the heart?” The OB looked for a second, Read more

The Loss of a Baby at Birth

Good afternoon,
My story is all too familiar. I learned of my pregnancy in August 2007. At that time, I was 6 months pregnant. I had no symptoms at all before this time. At the 6 month stage, I felt movement in my belly and went to my OB. They took a blood test and the test came back false/positive. At that point, they did a sonogram and we found out about our son. They did a 3D photo of him and I immediately bonded with him. When I told my husband, he was so excited because he had 2 daughters from a previous marriage, so this would be his first son. I went back to the OB after 2 weeks to get my check up and I heard his heartbeat and felt him move. I just could not believe how amazing this was because I did not think I could get pregnant. Two more weeks went by and I went back to the OB and at that point they could not find his heartbeat. The doctors rushed me to the nearest hospital and they still could not find a heartbeat. They admitted me the next day to induce labor. On Saturday, Septem ber 22, I delivered our son, Jayden Christian Harper. He was a beautiful boy. Before he was delivery, the hospital staff asked if we wanted him in the room with us afterwards. At first I said, no, then after some thought and I saw his face, I immediately said yes!!!! Two hours after he was born, we had him baptized. The day finally came when we had to give him back to the hospital so they could do the autopsy and that was the saddest day of our lives. At this point, we have not gotten the autopsy report and I am waiting…constantly looking out the

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