Parents Outraged After Baby Girl Mistakenly Registered as a Boy on Birth Certificate

A young couple, Ewan Murray and Grace Bingham, are outraged after their baby girl, Lilah, was mistakenly registered as a boy on her birth certificate. Despite repeated attempts to correct the error, they say national registration authorities have been unhelpful, leaving their five-week-old legally identified as male.

The mistake occurred when the couple visited the Sutton-in-Ashfield Registration Office in Nottinghamshire on November 13 to register Lilah’s birth. Grace, 20, shared her emotional distress: “It’s a nightmare, it’s destroyed me. I have been non-stop crying. It’s not something you ever expect to happen”, reported by the Daily Record.

Ewan, 21, explained the issue arose from an error in the hospital notes displayed on the registrar’s screen. The registrar has since admitted fault. However, the only offered solution was to add a note at the bottom of the certificate stating “male changed to female.” Ewan said, “I don’t think it’s good enough. It looks like a transgender baby. It sounds like she was born a boy and we’ve decided to make her a female at five weeks old.”

The couple, from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, are now battling to amend Lilah’s official records. “At the moment, our five-week-old daughter is, according to the government, a male,” Ewan said. “We’ve had to register her at the doctors and for child benefits as a boy. She’s been failed by the system already, and she’s only five weeks old.”

Ewan and Grace also fear the long-term implications of the mistake, such as complications with passports, job applications, and marriage. “It’s unacceptable that she’ll have a male birth certificate for the rest of her life,” Ewan added.

Grace expressed her frustration at the lack of resolution: “I don’t have a son, I have a daughter. I don’t feel we have been treated fairly. I feel it’s been brushed under the carpet. I’m not stopping until she’s got a female on her birth certificate.”

The couple has reached out to Nottinghamshire Register Offices and the General Register Office for assistance but say they have yet to receive a satisfactory response. Their ordeal highlights the challenges and emotional toll of correcting errors in official documents, particularly for new parents navigating an already overwhelming period.