This webpage was developed to assist Hospitals by making updated reporting forms available for downloading, as well as instructions related to birth registration. Please note that the process for submitting the forms has not changed, only the method of obtaining and completing the reporting forms.
Please open the following Introduction link for more information about downloading and using the forms and obtaining any supplies.
Birth Registration Accordion
Contact the vital records birth registration staff with any questions or concerns related to registering or correcting a birth record. Birth registration staff work with new registrations up to one year old only. Do not contact the Help Desk for registration questions unless you need to set up a new user or remove a former user from the system. Below is the handout that lists the birth registration staff and their duties.
Iowa Code
- Chapter 144 - Vital Statistics
Administrative Rules
- Table of Contents
- Chapter 95 - VR General Administration
- Chapter 96 - Birth Registration
- Chapter 97 - Death Registration & Disposition
- Chapter 98 - Marriage Registration
- Chapter 99 - VR Modifications
- Chapter 100 - VR Registries & Reports
Administrative Code section 99.15 details the requirements for registering a surrogate/gestational carrier birth record. Ultimately, the woman who gives birth is the legal mother for the purposes of registering the birth record -- which means that she is the only one who can complete the Mother's Birth Worksheet, and all the information is based on her and her marital status. Hospital staff enter and register the birth record, but must select: (1) No for the child's social security number on the Informant tab; (2) Spouse Information Not Available on the Marital Status tab if the birth mother is not married; (3) Removed from Custody on the Newborn pg2 tab; (4) Waived/Birth Mother does not have Custody on the Fees & Completion tab; and (5) Surrogate/Gestational Carrier on the Fees & Completion tab.
Pre-birth court orders are NOT acceptable for re-establishing the birth record, except for using to dis-establish the birth mother's legal husband in order to complete a Paternity Affidavit witht the biological father. Copies of the Administrative Code may be provided to the respective attorneys, the intended parents, and the birth mother, if necessary. Call the vital records field representative assigned to birth registration with any questions or concerns.
The birth registration program distributed a booklet in the past that was designed to assist the birth mother in preparing information for completing the birth worksheet, but the booklet went out of print in 2007. These booklets were very popular at the time because they gave the expectant mother an opportunity to write the information needed for the birth worksheet prior to coming to the hospital, and therefore coming prepared with such data as the parents' dates and places of birth and social security numbers -- which in turn reduced the errors caused by missing information.
We do not have the funds at this time to print quantities of this prenatal booklet; however, we have developed something similar that hospitals, prenatal care providers, and prenatal class sponsors may print and staple together to distribute to their expectant mothers. Hospital birth registrars were a fantastic asset in spreading the word about the prenatal booklet in the past that was greatly appreciated -- so please feel free to also pass along the electronic document to prenatal care providers having contact with your potential new moms.
To pass the handout along to providers, please download it to your own computer system and forward it as needed -- please do NOT provide a link to this portal page or any documenet on this portal page because that makes this page vulnerable and could result in having to remove the birth worksheeet forms from the page.
Hospital birth registration contact persons must download and print the Mother's and the Medical birth worksheets on plain bond paper.
Blank worksheets may NOT be distributed outside of the hospital, nor allowed to be taken home by a new parent. Worksheet supplies must be stored in a secured area. A Spanish guide is now available below for the Mother's Worksheet. This guide is NOT to be filled out and sent to Vital Records. It is only to help the parents fill out the official Mother's Worksheet. Any Spanish worksheets sent to Vital Records will be rejected.
For same-sex married female couples, be sure to select the parentage titles as requested by the parent on the new mother's worksheet and enter the spouse's information the same as any other married couple. After July 1, 2015, it will no longer be necessary to fax in the worksheet to the state birth registration program since the new system will print the parentage titles on the newborn's birth certificate as selected by the hospital's data entry.
For data entry in the updated IVES/EBRS, make sure to use only the updated birth worksheets below. Shred any remaining supplies of the older birth worksheets, including the Same-Sex ones since it will no longer be necessary to provide them a separate worksheet or fax in their worksheet because the new system accommodates their choices of parentage titles.
The following are informational handouts that may be provided to new parents along with the birth worksheet.
All official forms are to be printed on plain bond paper. DO NOT LINK this document, or this portal, to your own website or any other webpage, which then makes it available to Google users and results in the form being submitted to the State improperly.
- Establishing Paternity-Internal Information
- Paternity Affidavits require copy of IDs attached
- Identity Documents for notarization
- Voluntary Paternity Affidavit FORM
- ISU Paternity Affidavit Program - order the Establish Paternity by Affidavit pamphlet
Hospital staff must contact the state birth registration program for instances of adoption pending, surrogate, removal from mom's custody -- forced or voluntary -- infant born alive and then died, and stillbirths. The latter two instances are to aide the state office in monitoring for the correct certificate report being filed. The other situations give the state office a heads-up to ensure that the birth record is being accurately flagged.
In the cases of adoption pending, surrogate, and removal from custody, the fees are to be waived. The legal custodians of the newborn will need to apply for any certified birth certificates and the social security number.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The woman who gave birth MUST complete the birth worksheet in all cases -- no exceptions, and all information is based on her and her marital status. All court orders must be directed to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Pre-birth court orders are NOT acceptable for re-establishing a birth record, except for dis-establishing a birth mother's legal spouse in order for her and the biological father to complete a Paternity Affidavit.
New legislation SF577 was enacted on July 1, 2022, and will allow a mother who experiences a nonviable birth prior to 20 completed weeks of gestation to obtain a certificate of nonviable birth.
A nonviable birth is defined as an unintentional, spontaneous fetal demise occurring after demonstration of a doppler-detected heartbeat and prior to the twentieth week of gestation during a pregnancy that has been verified by a healthcare provider. Upon request of the patient, the Certification of Non-Viable Birth is to be completed by the health care provider who attended or diagnosed the nonviable birth.
The state no longer provides the Certificate of Fetal Death forms. Hospital birth registration staff will print the Certificate of Fetal Death form onto the "Special Registration Paper" that can be obtained from the state vital records office. The primary form with the heading "Certificate of Fetal Death" on the "WHITE" side of the paper and the statistical questions of the report on the "BLUE" side with the VR seal landing in the lower left corner.
When printing, feed the special registration paper in so that the "white" side will print first and the blue side with VR seal is in the lower left so it does not obscure any items on the report. The Certificate of Fetal Death is 2-sided, back-to-back.
The special registration paper comes in packages of 100 and can be order through the Vital Records Online Supply Order Form.
The reporting form is a .pdf and is not yet field-fillable. There is no worksheet, so all items must be completed legibly directly onto the report form. Either the hospital or the funeral home may initiate the report -- but please be sure to communicate with each other to ensure that duplicate records are not filed. Fetal deaths are filed at the state level only.
Hospital Birth Registration staff are required to generate the Summary of Fee Report from the electronic system. The report requires birth staff to sign, date, and ensure the amount on the summary of fee report matches the amount of the checks/money order before mailing the report with the fees to the birth registration program with the Bureau of Health Statistics, Department of Public Health.
Pursuant to the Iowa Code section 14.13, this is within seven (7) days of the birth. Printing the report is explained in detail in the data entry manual. Hospitals are encouraged to use the Summary of Fee Report to conduct their own audit against the birth worksheets and their delivery room log.