Nothing like a woman about to have a baby to spur people into action. New York State officials have been pondering the many ways they need to carry out Gov. David Paterson’s directive that state agencies respect out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples.

New York residents Carolyn Trzeciak and Nina Sheldon Trzeciak, who married in Canada in 2006, and are expecting their first child, decided to move things along and sued the state last month, asking that both their names be placed on their child’s birth certificate when s/he is born. On Friday, the state Health Department agreed, saying “it had been exploring how to apply Paterson’s directive to birth certificates for some time, but arranged a quick resolution for the couple because the baby was expected as soon as Friday.” (Hmm. Perhaps I should have named this post “Lesbian Moms, Stat!“)

Thanks to this, married same-sex couples who have children in New York may now list both their names on their children’s birth certificates, as they can in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. The AP adds that this brings same-sex couples into parity with opposite-sex ones, because, “Under state law, a woman’s husband is automatically deemed a parent of a child the pair conceives through artificial insemination, whether or not he is the genetic father.” They also note that even though same-sex couples may be able to do second-parent adoptions, “having their names on a child’s birth certificate immediately gives both spouses such rights as nursery visits and information on the child’s medical condition.”

True, but as the article notes, LGBT legal experts (and I’m not one, so check with your own) recommend doing a second-parent adoption even if both names are on the birth certificate. The right of the non-bio parent to be on the birth certificate may not be recognized by states that don’t recognize the parent’s marriage. A second-parent adoption will, however, cement a relationship between the non-bio parent and the child in a way that all states should recognize.

Yeah, we shouldn’t have to do all this. But the New York ruling is a step forward.