The birth and death certificates of a baby who died after 13 days have been changed to include the name of the father after the mother took the case to court. The father had insisted he was not the father of the baby but a DNA test showed otherwise.

Mr Justice Robert Mangion, who presided over the Family Court, heard how the couple had been dating for about seven months and were planning to get married. They even completed the Cana Movement’s marriage preparation course. However, something went wrong and they broke up. Ten days later the woman realised she was pregnant. She claimed her former partner initially wanted her to carry out an abortion and when she refused he insisted the baby was not his.

Seven months into her pregnancy the woman was taken to hospital and gave birth a month-and-a-half later – on January 27, 2010.

But, due to complications, the baby died 13 days later. Before the child passed away, a sample of DNA was taken from its mouth.

In August that year the mother started a court case in which she insisted the child’s father be named on the birth and death certificate. She claimed she was doing this for social reasons and also because of her reputation.

A DNA paternity test showed there was a “99.9999 per cent” probability that the man was the father. The court ruled that given that paternity was proven, the child’s birth and death certificate should be changed to replace the term “unknown father” with the name of the father.

Recent figures showed that seven per cent of babies born in the past five years were registered as having an unknown father.