Baby girl listed as boy on birth certificate and parents say it can never be changed

A young couple are grappling with a bureaucratic blunder that has left their baby girl legally recognised as a boy due to an error on her birth certificate. Ewan Murray and Grace Bingham have been struggling to make contact with officials about five-week-old Lilah's records, despite reaching out to national registration authorities.

But they say she will now have a male birth certificate for life. And they worry about the impact this will have when applying for a passport or a job.

"It's a nightmare, it's destroyed me," shared 20-year-old Ms Bingham. "I have been non-stop crying.

"It's not something you ever expect to happen". Her partner, 21, expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed solution of adding a note to the certificate: "I don't think it's good enough," said the Tesco shift leader.

"It looks like a transgender baby. It sounds like she was born a boy and we've decided to make her a female at five weeks old," he added. The Home Office has been approached for a statement, reports Nottinghamshire Live.

The error occurred when the new parents, from Nottinghamshire, went to register Lilah's birth at the Sutton-in-Ashfield Registration Office on Wednesday, November 13. "They ask a lot of questions but never the child's gender because they're given to them by the hospital notes on the screen," Mr Murray explained.

"We didn't even think to check the gender box which is our responsibility partially. The [registrar] responsible has taken full responsibility for it. We were still in the office when we figured it out."

The couple from nearby Kirkby-in-Ashfield have been left frustrated after numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact Nottinghamshire Register Offices and the General Register Office. Mr Murray expressed his dismay, saying: "At the moment our five-week-old daughter is, according to the government, a male.

"We've had to register her to the doctors and for child benefits as a boy. She's been failed by the system already and she's only five weeks old".

The dad also shared the emotional impact of the error, saying frankly: "It was devastating.

"She was our first child. It's unacceptable that she'll have a male birth certificate for the rest of her life.

"It's not going to be good when she applies for a passport, gets married or applies for a job." Ms Bingham added: "I don't have a son, I have a daughter.

"I don't feel we have been treated fairly. I feel it's been brushed under the carpet. I'm not stopping until she's got a female on her birth certificate."