Clerk/Register of Deeds improves home birth registration process

The Oakland County Clerk’s Office partnered with the State of Michigan to utilize their birth registry program to electronically record home births in Oakland County.

For many communities, the County Clerk’s office serves as the local registrar, where out-of-hospital births (including home births) must be filed. Previously, hard-copy birth records received by the county would be mailed to the state. With the new system, state agencies receive the information as soon as it is submitted. A big benefit of the program to new parents is that they will receive their child’s Social Security number much sooner than with the traditional paper process. 

“A customer came into the office expressing his concern about having to wait longer to get his home-birthed child’s Social Security card and questioned whether there was something that could change in our process.  That prompted a phone call from my office to the state which inevitably led to this new process for Oakland County out-of-hospital births,” said Lisa Brown, Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds.  Less than 10% of the counties in Michigan use the state program.

For additional information on vital records and other services available through the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office, call 248-858-0561 or visit www.oakgov.com/clerk.