The Certificate of Hawaiian Birth wasn’t necessarily for at-home births. It was actually intended for older people who were born when Hawaii was a territory or who hadn’t applied for a birth certificate at birth. A COHB was used for those who failed to submit ANY information to the HDOH within the first year after birth. As long as Obama had any information at the DOH’s office within a year of his birth, he would receive a birth certificate, not a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth.
The COHB option was ended in 1972.
Home births could be filed with the HDOH anytime within 90 days of the birth without any consequences at all, as long as all the required information made it to the HDOH within that time. Lori Starfelt says that the HDOH told her that the normal process was to have the baby examined by a doctor within 30 days of birth and complete the BC. If that wasn’t done, according to the DOH rules, then information added after that time would be considered an amendment, the certificate would be noted as altered, and because the certificate was not completed within the required time, the certificate would also be noted as late.
I believe that is what happened with Obama’s BC. The BC was amended in 2006 to add an item that wasn’t on the BC originally because Obama wasn’t in Hawaii and couldn’t be seen by a Hawaii doctor to have him complete the BC.