A baby born to a transgender man may become the first baby in the UK to have no legal mother on their birth certificate after the man asked to be listed as either father or parent instead of mother.

The man began his legal battle at the beginning of this year after he was told by the registrar that people who give birth are legally required to be registered as mothers in order to get a birth certificate issued, even though he was legally a man at the time of the birth.

The father had also been denied child benefit payments because he refused to identify as the child’s mother.

In the landmark case, Sir Andrew McFarlane, the President of the Family Division of the High Court, is set to rule on whether the child’s birth certificate will still be valid even though no legal mother is listed.

Mr Justice Francis has said that such a case had never been heard in a UK court before and it may see a change in the law if the man was to win his case against the Registrar General for England and Wales.

The head of the transgender man’s legal team, barrister Hannah Markham QC, said in a statement to the court that “it is an accepted fact that a female who transitions to male may in law maintain the ability to conceive and give birth to a child.”

Markham continued, “It is further averred that the current law relating to the registration of births and deaths is no longer compatible with the changes in society, the evolvement of freedom of expression and gender equality and the protection of an individual’s rights to identify as a particular gender.”

Last year, two transgender men became the first ever to give birth in the UK. In April 2017, 23-year-old Scott Parker gave birth to his daughter Sara, while Hayden Cross gave birth to his daughter Trinity-Leigh.