The Bedside Birth Registration Service has been expanded to the Sangre Grande Hospital, allowing parents to register their baby’s birth and receive the newborn’s printed birth certificate before leaving the hospital.
Speaking at the launch of the service on Wednesday, Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein praised the efforts to modernise the birth registration process.
“Now you have these tablets, iPads. I believe that they’re going to be floating around the maternity ward asking parents give me the name of your child, let us register this birth, and go downstairs when you’re ready to leave with your baby and collect your birth certificate, and you’re off to go.”
The Minister also explained how an electronically verified birth certificate could work in the future.
“You have this physical document under a mattress or in a brown folder like this. You are now able to have it in the convenience of your cellular phone. And what it has is a security feature, which is the QR code, which will be imprinted on the digital copy of the certificate so when you access government services, present your phone, present your iPad, whatever device, they scan it, they verify this is an authentic document and you are ready to go.”
Meanwhile, Registrar General Karen Bridgewater said the initiative is necessary, noting that statistics show that over the past five years, 6,544 babies born in Trinidad and Tobago were not registered by their parents. Of that number, 373 were born at the Sangre Grande Hospital.
She said the bedside birth registration service aims to address the issue.
“The Sangre Grande District Registrar’s Office will facilitate the printing of the first birth certificate for all babies born at the bedside. So therefore mothers who register at the bedside will leave the hospital not only with the registration but with their child’s birth certificate in hand.”
Since the launch of the Bedside Birth Registration Service at the San Fernando General Hospital on January 1st, 2026, 560 babies have been registered at the bedside.