<<In CA for example, the midwife provided a letter saying she witnessed the birth, etc but it was up to my husband and I to take our newborn in person to the office that records births before we could receive a birth certificate or have the birth recorded.>>

I'm in California too.  My midwife did the paperwork for me.  The closest vital stats office is 120 miles away so it saved us a trip.  We went into our Regional Health office to sign the birth certificate and then mailed a cheque along with a form they provided to request the number of certificates we wanted once it was filed.  It took some time.  With both my girls, it took at least 6 months (9 months for my second).  There were mistakes on the certificate the first go-round and inter-office mail between my community and the vital stats office seemed to take a good month for the corrected certificate to be ready and sent back again.  I had a homebirth certificate with baby's footprints that the midiwve does (not official, just a keepsake) and that was enough for us to get our babies added to our military medical insurance.

Margo

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