The Registrar General’s Department (RGD), in an effort to address the problem of parents leaving hospitals without naming their children, says it will issue free birth certificates for every child registered with a name at birth, starting this New Year’s Day.

According to Dr Patricia Holness, chief executive officer of the RGD, only 27.8 per cent of parents name their children at birth. She said while another 37.5 per cent of babies are named at local district registrars within the first six weeks of birth, another 34.7 per cent are not named in the first year of birth.

Government statistics show that Jamaica records approximately 45,000 births each year.

Yesterday, at a press conference at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston, Holness emphasised the need for parents to ensure that their children are named before leaving the hospital. This, she said, would make it easier for the RGD to process the children’s birth certificates.

She also appealed to fathers to ensure that their particulars were included on their child’s birth certificate at the time of registration to avoid doing this at a later date.

As an incentive, Holness said the Mandeville, Spanish Town, Victoria Jubilee, Cornwall Regional and the University of the West Indies hospitals will be issuing same-day birth certificates to parents who register their child with a name on January 1. After this, the first free certificate will be delivered within three months of registration.

However, children who are not named within six weeks of birth will not be issued with a free birth certificate.

Holness also said that an RGD registration officer will be assigned to all hospitals and birth centres islandwide, seven days per week, to do registration.

The RGD head said it was expected that there would be a 10 per cent increase in the demand for certificates with the new initiative, but said the department would be able to balance its additional responsibilities as it will be adding 15 personnel.

Holness told the Observer that the net cost of the project was approximately $6 million, but said it was expected that this cost would be halved next year.

In the meantime, the RGD is to publish and distribute a booklet containing baby names to all pre-natal clinics and maternity centres.

The RGD said, too, that 11,000 of the 18,000 children targeted under its “Name the Child Project” have now been named.