A couple have faced their very own 'worst nightmare' after registering the birth of their daughter and spotting big mistake on the certificate when it was too late
A young mum has faced her worst nightmare after spotting a huge blunder on her daughter's birth certificate.
Registering your child is one of the most important and exciting parts of becoming a new parent, but Grace Bingham has been 'crying for days' since realising the wrong sex has been added to the birth documents.
The 20-year-old and her partner Ewan Murray, 21, welcomed Lilah into the world, but after registering her birth, new mum Grace discovered her daughter had been registered as a male on the form. Now the couple are worried their newborn is going to get mistaken as transgender.
Grace, from Nottingham, said she'd reviewed the certificate at the time but said she had "overlooked" the mistake and signed it, blaming it on a lack of sleep as a first-time mum. Now, the couple are unable to amend the error on their five-week-old's records and called it a "nightmare".
The mum said: "It's been a nightmare and I've not stopped crying since. As first-time parents, we were very excited and, admittedly, a bit overwhelmed – especially due to the lack of sleep. We focused on ensuring that all the names were spelt correctly and didn't expect such a professional error to happen.
"At the moment, our newborn daughter is a male, according to the government. I don't have a son, I have a daughter. This could cause significant issues for our daughter throughout her life, as it would imply she is transgender when she is biologically female."
Grace said if their daughter chooses to identify differently later in life that will be her decision, but the mum said "at just five weeks old, she cannot make that choice." She added: "It's unfair for her birth certificate to say male, which could negatively impact her in various aspects of life, such as school, jobs, and relationships – due to a mistake that is not her fault."
The couple say they feel "wronged" by the system with this error, and the only way they think they can get it properly addressed is to bring it to parliament's attention after being "failed" by everyone else.
Grace asked: "What will happen when she applies for a passport, or a job and gets married? We do not feel like we've been treated fairly. She's been failed by the system already and she's only a few weeks old. I'm devastated." It happened when the pair went to register Lilah's birth at Sutton-in-Ashfield Registration Office in Nottinghamshire on November 13.
They were then told in order to rectify the mistake, they would need to pay £99. However, Grace is worried that even after correcting the error, the birth certificate would still list Lilah as male, with a small note indicating the sex was changed to female.
The couple have since been trying to contact Nottinghamshire Register Offices and the General Register Office to no avail. They have also got in touch with Ashfield MP Lee Anderson for assistance.