“Comprobante de Parto”

HERE WE WILL EXPLAIN WHAT THE COMPROBANTE DE PARTO IS.

Everyone born in Chile is most likely being born in the hospital due to the laws in the country. Of course there are exceptions but in Chile it is not usual and not supported to have your child being born in your own house (as is the case in some countries in the rest of the world).

When born in Chile you are being registered in the hospital with your name, the name of your mother, the name of your father and two witnesses. Those witnesses are usually family members or in some cases it can be members of the staff of the hospital.

The document created is called the “Comprobante de Parto” (Proof of Birth) and is handwritten. Next to showing the names, it will also have your details about your birth. Like date and time of birth, length and weight and it will show a unique number. This number consists of 11 digits, than a dash, and than 2 more digits after the dash. The last two digits after the dash can also contain a letter.

This document is being used to later register the newborn at the “Registro Civil” (Register Office). This is where a child is being registered as a newborn citizen of the Chilean State and will be registered with the names, dates, the office of registration (city or community) and the RUT-Number.

Because the Comprobante de Parto shows the name of the mother, we at Chilean Adoptees Worldwide often try to obtain this document to find out if it shows the name of the mother an adoptee is looking for. However, often we are seeing no name of a mother which makes a family search more challenging.

COMPROBANTE DE PARTO DOES NOT ALWAYS SHOW THE NAME OF THE MOTHER.

The explanation “why the Comprobante de Parto does not always show the name of the mother” is not very logical. It will start to make sense when we go deeper into the material.

Every person born in Chile has a Comprobante de Parto. Period. You are born. That is where this document comes from. You are rewarded with a RUT Number and so you are a Chilean Citizen. No exceptions.

Since we now know that children have been separated directly after birth, there have been many mothers who have actually been fooled by hearing from the hospital staff that their child was born dead. Never shown a corps, never having received a death-certificate. So these mothers have never had the opportunity to register their child. Never been given the option to realise a Comprobante de Parto and so, also never been able to realise a death-certificate.

But the children in most cases were not dead and have been able to leave the country. How? In order to leave the country you need a passport. Most of the Chilean adoptees have this old red passport still between their adoption documents. This passport shows your personal details, your names, your RUT Number and it shows an address. It shows an image of you and it shows your fingerprint.

This passport is based upon the details that you have been registered with. But by who have you been registered if your mother or family did not register you? It is likely that your Chilean passport in this case shows your name which you continued to live with in the country where you went to. We have seen cases that adoptees who went to Sweden, have been registered in the Chilean Registro Civil, with their Swedish adoptive names!! We have seen the same situations of children who went to Belgium, Germany and Switzerland and the USA.

In that case you have been registered by the people in Chile who have organised your “adoption” and that is why it can happen that the Comprobante de Parto of these people do not show any names of the biological mothers.

However, there are more varieties! We have recently seen a situation in which a comprobante de Parto did not show any names of any relatives. It was even crossed out. So why is that? The child in subject was “stolen” directly after birth. The mother not being able to actually register her child and the people involved in the illegal adoption (because that is what this was) did make sure to make the Comprobante de Parto unusable.

This makes it very hard to find back the biological family when looking for them. There is no record in the hospital papers so where to start? It deserves attention that one of the first places to look for when you start with a family search is to obtain your complete file from the bureau that took care of your adoption in the country where you live in. Lots of information can be obtained from your adoption file. If there is anything there in Spanish, don’t worry, we can help you with that.

Recently we have seen that an adoptee came across the name of his mother mentioned on one of the documents between all the other papers in his adoption file, obtained at the Swedish Adoption Center. There was a document, also a Comprobante de Parto that did show the name of the biological mother. This while the Comprobante de Parto as obtained in Chile did not show anything. No names at all.

So with that information one can imagine that there has a lot of “errors” been going on in these times. Exactly these errors are currently being investigated within the Investigation Commission as set up through the Chamber of Deputies last November 2018. This commission has 90 days the time to see in which part the Chilean State administratively has failed in all these illegal adoptions.

Once in any way the name of a biological mother is found, we see next to the name a RUT Number. A unique number that any Chilean citizen has. This is where the next stage of a family search begins.