If and when to register

If your baby was born dead before 24 completed weeks of pregnancy

Your baby’s birth cannot be registered at a register office. However, many hospitals give parents a certificate of birth as a keepsake to commemorate their baby. If your hospital does not do this, you could provide a certificate and ask them to sign it.

You can download a two versions of a blank certificate here:

1) Certificate - both parents listed

2) Certificate - mother only listed

Or phone or email the Sands Helpline and ask them to send you a certificate by post.

If you want to arrange your baby’s funeral yourself, you need a form from the hospital to give to the funeral director. This confirms that the baby was born before the “age of viability” (that is, before 24 completed weeks) and showed no signs of life.

If your baby was stillborn after 24 completed weeks of pregnancy

You need to register your baby’s stillbirth with the registrar of births, marriages and deaths within 6 weeks (3 weeks in Scotland, 3 months in Northern Ireland).

If your baby was born alive at any stage of pregnancy and then died

You need to register your baby’s death within 5 working days (8 working days in Scotland). You can register the birth at the same time.