Noah’s Law

A few months after we lost Noah, we became involved with a piece of legislation to allow the parents of stillborn children to receive a certificate of birth resulting in stillbirth. As the Maine law currently stands, a child who is stillborn (definition: born after 20 weeks gestation and never takes a breath) is required to have a death certificate, but is not eligible to receive a birth certificate. This situation seems to defy logic: how can there be a death if there was never a life?

Kathy, the lactation consultant at the hospital where I delivered Noah, has actually been the driving force behind this bill. She was at the hospital the day we were there, and was helping fill out our paperwork when she noticed the conspicuous absence of a birth certificate. After some research online, she discovered that 25 states in the U.S. have enacted legislation to allow birth certificates for stillborn babies, but Maine was not yet one of them. Kathy decided to take action by contacting our local state senator and asking her to initiate a new law.

I started developing a relationship with Kathy when I decided to donate my breast milk. She was incredibly supportive of the process, bringing me a pump and answering all the questions I had about lactation. I talked with her about how donating breast milk was one tangible way I could bring good from the tragedy we had experienced, and she tentatively brought up the idea of working on the bill as something else we could do to help Noah’s short existence have a positive impact on the world.

Up until that point, Mark and I had simply accepted the fact that we weren’t going to get a birth certificate. We were still in the early stages of grief, and hadn’t thought to explore the legalities of the situation. However, we were certainly aware of not getting a birth certificate, particularly on the day we spent in the hospital. Before Noah was born, we had been waffling between a few different names, and joked that we were going to be forced to choose one when filling out the birth certificate. Instead, we found ourselves faced with the task of choosing a name for our son’s death certificate. Filling out those forms felt like adding insult to injury, but we had no choice.

When Kathy asked if we would become the face of this bill by putting our son’s name on it and sharing our story, we didn’t hesitate before saying yes. If this bill passes, the parents who go through this in the future will be spared the sadness of seeing their babies’ names on a death certificate but never having official recognition of the birth. We know this recognition will just be a small consolation in the vast sea of grief parents have to navigate when they experience stillbirth, but it’s something.

On Wednesday, there will be a hearing before the committee that is considering this bill. We’ve been gathering support from various forms, from petition signatures to e-mails to state representatives. We’re also hoping a fairly good crowd will turn out at the hearing itself, though it’s going to happen in Augusta, which is a bit of a drive for everyone in our network of friends. Mark and I are going to get on the stand to share our story, so we are praying for strength and peace as we try to find the right words.

I will post an update after the hearing on Wednesday, including the written text of our testimony. In the meantime, please be praying for us and the passage of this bill.