Pennsylvania: Are We a Safe Place to Have a Baby?

Having a baby is usually a happy, exciting time for both the mother and father to be. If you're having a baby, or if you know someone who wants to have a baby soon, why not look into the cities that are the best to have a baby in America? So, in Pennsylvania, are we a safe place to have a baby?

LawnStarter has a new study out that lists the best cities to have a baby in America. It's a fascinating study. "Which U.S. cities support women most through the challenges of motherhood?" LawnStarter asks in their new survey. LawnStarter adds that they did this study because the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect on June 27, 2023. For the study, LawnStarter looked at the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on seven categories. Those categories included average delivery costs, access to lactation spaces, and reproductive rights. They also used a whopping 48 total metrics.

The safest city in all of America to have a baby, according to the study, is Portland, Oregon. Its overall score was 57.52. Portland ranked high in all the good categories, so that's what made it No. 1 on LawnStarter's list of the safest cities in America to have a baby.

So, where are we? Not good. Out of the 200 cities, our highest city is Pittsburgh at No. 75. Then, Philadelphia is at No. 156. This study would imply that Pennsylvania could be safer when it comes to having a baby, at least in comparison to other areas. Back to the best cities. Let's look at the rest of the top 5. Coming in at No. 2 was Boston, Massachusetts. No. 3 was Bellevue, Washington. Then, at No. 4 is another Washington city in Seattle. Finally, at No. 5, it's Orange, California. My uncle is a retired OB-GYN, and it's interesting to me to see these different cities and why they are ranked so safe to have a baby. Find the full list of cities here.

For many parents, naming a child can become a stressful process. Perhaps, it's the pressure of giving a tiny human a name they will have for their entire life. Some families name their kids after a family member, someone famous, fictional characters, or sometimes something that reminds them of a sweet memory. Parents have the right to choose a child's name. However, that responsibility comes with a few restrictions.

Some states have naming laws and restrictions that define whether new parents are allowed to choose a certain name for their baby or not. According to USBirthCertificates.com, a vital records application preparation assistance service, certain states have other kinds of naming restrictions in place to protect children. This includes banning the use of obscenity in names.

Several states limit the number of characters that can be used in a name because of official birth records software used in the U.S. Apparently, in Nebraska first, middle and last names must be less than 100 characters total.

While other states go as far as banning the use of numerical digits or emojis. For example, Massachusetts only allow letters found on the standard English keyboard to be used in baby names. There are also states who prohibit naming children after people who have committed heinous crimes. We don't know why anyone would, but this means you can’t name your child "Adolf Hitler."

Many of the common naming restrictions include derogatory terms, obscenity, offensive names, numbers, and certain characters like asterisks. However, there are celebrities like Grimes and Elon Musk who didn’t let their states restrictions stop them from naming their kids Exa Dark Sideræl referred to as "Y" and  X Æ A-XII, nicknamed "X."

If you are in the "naming" process, you should become familiar with the restrictions set in place by each state to avoid birth certificate surprises.

In 2013, a child support magistrate in East Tennessee ruled that a 7-month-old boy named Messiah must have his name changed to Martin. "The word 'Messiah' is a title, and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ," said  Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.

In 2009, New Jersey parents Heath and Deborah Campbell were taken into state custody after authorities got involved in a cake incident. A bakery refused to decorate a cake with the words "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler." The Campbell’s gave their three children Nazi-inspired names including Adolf Hitler . Though the state said that their names were not the reason, it's been reported that the parents didn't believe them.

In 2018, Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk of Georgia sued their home state after officials refused to let them name their daughter ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah. The issue was Allah, the two-year-old girl's last name. Georgia law requires that children bear the last name of at least one of their parents. The parents won the case, with the help of lawyers from the ACLU.

In 1976, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that short-order cook and high school teacher Michael Herbert Dengler could not change his name to "1069."

In December 1999, Robert William Handley of Ohio filed a petition to change his name to Santa Robert Claus. Judge Lawrence Belskis denied his petition saying that "the public has a proprietary interest, a proprietary right in the identity of Santa Claus, both in the name and the persona."

A 1984 ruling from the California Courts of Appeal denied a request from Thomas Boyd Ritchie III to change his name to the Roman numeral "III," pronounced "Three." The court said that, "a change to a roman numeral did not constitute a name change within the meaning of the law and that the new 'name' used by appellant was inherently confusing."