A lesbian couple in Halifax has filed a human rights complaint over the way Nova Scotia registers the birth of a child.

Jamie and Emily O'Neill say it's unfair that government forms contain spaces for "mother" and "father," but not for two mothers.

Emily and Jamie O'Neill say both their names should be on baby Jordyn's birth registration.
(CBC)

"I want the same rights that everyone else has when a couple gives birth in the hospital and they are a married couple," said Emily, who married Jamie in 2005, the year Canada legalized same-sex marriage.

Emily gave birth to a daughter, Jordyn, on Aug. 7. About two weeks later, the O'Neills were told Jamie could not be recognized as Jordyn's parent.

Under Nova Scotia's Vital Statistics Act, only the birth mother can have her name on the birth registration, the document needed to issue a birth certificate.

Jamie says it's shocking that she has to formally adopt Jordyn to win legal rights as her parent.

"Emily might have given birth to Jordyn, but she is 100 per cent my daughter. I don't feel that I have to go out and formally adopt her to prove to anybody that she is my daughter," Jamie said.

The Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, a group that promotes equality for gays and lesbians, is helping the O'Neills with their complaint to the province's human rights commission.

The group says it contacted the appropriate cabinet ministers and was told the government recognizes the problem and is looking for a solution.

"Equality demands that they take this issue seriously," NSRAP chair Kevin Kindred said in a release. "The Vital Statistics Act discriminates in Nova Scotia, and same-sex couples and families suffer as a result."

Service Nova Scotia Minister Jamie Muir says the act is being reviewed to see if it is consistent with the law, and to see what changes could or should be made, and how.

The O'Neills want Jamie designated as a legal parent, and want "appropriate" compensation.

But Jamie hopes the issue can be resolved by the middle of October, without having to proceed through the human-rights complaint process.

Five provinces have changed laws to recognize same-sex couples as legal parents.