Can I Get Custody Of My Unborn Child?
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Getting custody of your child before the child is born can be somewhat difficult. You need to be able to first establish that you are the father, in a legal sense. In many states, being married to the mother is enough. However, if you are not married to the mother of the unborn child, you will have a much greater challenge in terms of how you can establish paternity, much less get custody of your unborn child.
While it is possible to do a genetic test on a child while it is still unborn, the fact of the matter is that courts will very often refuse to force a woman to have this genetic test before the baby is born. This is because, although the risk is small, there is a health risk involved in the process of establishing paternity for an unborn child. Still, if you are able to establish biologically that you were the father of the unborn child, the court is generally obliged to recognize that fact.
Getting custody of your child can be another matter altogether. Custody of a child cannot be established, obviously, until after the child is actually born. At that point, a court can grant custody to someone other than the mother. However, the case for granting custody of a newborn to anyone other than its mother has to be a very compelling case. It will probably have to be a situation in which the court believes the baby’s life to be in danger before it will give custody of a newborn to someone else.
If the mother is in agreement, you can establish a child custody agreement before the unborn child is born. Once the child is born, you can then get the court to certify the agreement, and thereby make it legal. Here again, the mother’s wishes play a very heavy role in whether this will happen or not.
If you are interested in getting custody of your unborn child, you should contact a family law attorney who has training and experience in the area of child custody.
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