Born, raised in secret: kids to get birth certificates

Sydney: A young woman kept her pregnancies under wraps, giving birth at home. She was worried about her conservative Chinese background and what her family would think.

When she was just 19, she had a baby girl in 2011 while living in Sydney. Both she and the father were in Australia on student visas at the time.

Fast forward to 2019, she had a boy at home too, again without any medical help. Because neither child was born in a hospital, they didn’t have any official documents.

Recently, a tribunal decided that the kids should get birth certificates, reversing an earlier refusal from the Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages.

The tribunal recognized that the couple was in a tough spot. They were scared to tell their parents back in China, who held very traditional views about unmarried mothers.

They faced a lot of social stigma, especially since the woman was a teenager. This fear and shame made them keep quiet and handle everything on their own.

To hide her pregnancy, she wore loose clothes, even from her coworkers. They recently had a child in a hospital, and that baby got a birth certificate like normal.

When their daughter was old enough, they couldn’t enroll her in school because she didn’t have a birth certificate. Instead, they bought her textbooks to study at home.

By the time their son was born, their student visas had expired, making it even harder to seek help. The woman gave birth alone, with the father arriving just five minutes later.

They thought he could rush her to the hospital, but he didn’t make it in time. Luckily, neither child had serious health issues, but they hadn’t received vaccinations either.

Once, when the boy cut his hand badly, they took him to the hospital. Without Medicare info, the staff just took their details and sent them a bill.

Now, they’ve welcomed a third child in a hospital, and this time, everything went smoothly with the birth certificate.