Certification of Birth

Having given birth at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, a Certification of Birth can be expected to arrive within two weeks. If your experience is like ours, where there was a typo in the name, you’ll need to have this rectified. If you follow the instructions on the back of the document it’ll ask for the affidavit to be filled out in the presence of an Notary Public, original documents in support of the correction et cetera. If you call the Division of Vital Records at 724-656-3100 an automated machine will present one additional option where the hospital the birth occurred at can correct the typographical error. The Division of Vital Records says they will provide an amended record for free if the error was caused by them, however they also say that if the error was caused by the hospital then contact the hospital for the record to be corrected and a new one will be provided for free.

I’ll save you some time calling and being transferred to various departments to have the error resolved. Penn Hospital birth records at 800 Spruce St can be reached at 267-758-4159. It’s unlikely you’ll get through on your first attempt, and the message bank for this line is very very short. Once this has been corrected you’ll need to write “Hospital Amended” on the face of the document and post it back to the Division of Vital Records. I would recommend making a copy as backup just in case it goes missing or your health insurance wants proof of dependency. This process will take about 4 weeks.

I don’t know the contact number for any other hospital, but feel free to leave it in the comments below.