Like all new mothers, Beccy Hunter wished for a happy, healthy baby before her daughter’s birth.
But unlike most mothers, the Daily Mail reports she wanted her dying partner to hold their child before he passed.
Hunter gave birth early in May 2020, and Jamie, who had kidney cancer, got to hold his daughter before dying two days later.
And that was the beginning of Hunter’s nightmare. Grappling with grief, a newborn and five other children, Hunter had to go through a grueling two-year process to get Jamie’s name on their daughter’s birth certificate.
The mother of six, who changed her last name to Jamie’s shortly before his death, had to go to lawyers and submit DNA samples of her deceased partner and newborn daughter. She had to move his body from a funeral home to a hospital to get Jamie’s sample, and the transfer barred her from seeing him for several weeks.
Hunter then had to meet with social services, and because the couple never married, she appeared in court to argue why Jamie’s name should be on the birth certificate.
The whole process cost thousands and was extremely difficult she revealed.
“It’s been hell, it makes me so mad that we had to go through this,” Hunter said. “If we had been married, they would have just taken it as gospel that he was the dad.”
She continued, explaining that “the law is so outdated. Today, lots of people aren’t married when they have kids.”
Thankfully, after Hunter’s emotional plea in court, the judges approved her request. However, Hunter’s stress wasn’t over. She then had to apply for another birth certificate.
Finally, in July 2022, she received her daughter’s final birth certificate, with Jamie noted as her father.
Her answer was simple when asked why Hunter went through the trouble of making sure Jamie was considered her daughter’s legal father.
“For Jamie, being a dad was all he ever wanted. Why should Harper grow up looking at her birth certificate with her dad being a blank space? I did it for Harper,” she said.
And the process has inspired Hunter to advocate for a reformed birth certificate process in the United Kingdom for parents like her.
“The whole process is wrong and we need to raise awareness to try to change it. I just feel that if I can help anyone in the same unfortunate position as me then it’s worth it,” Hunter said.
