Do I need to get legal authority to leave the state before the baby is born?

If there is no court case involving paternity, parenting time or child support pending in an Oregon court when the birth date is coming up, you can go wherever you want to have your baby. However, it would be a very good idea to have the father of the child present when the baby is born so he gets his name on the birth certificate. That make it a LOT easier to establish his duty to pay child support while the child is growing up (like 18 to 20 years under Oregon law). Once the child is born, you would need to file a petition in the state where you reside to determine custody, parenting time and child support and then have him served with the summons and petition in that action. While a court can award the parties joint custody in Oregon if the parties agree to that, under Oregon law it is a very bad idea. The reason is that if the court enters a judgment for sole custody to you with parenting time for Dad on a regular schedule and an award of child support to you, the only way he can ever get that modified is if he can show that there has been a material change in circumstances since the original judgment was entered. On the other hand, if you get a judgment for joint custody based on your agreement for that arrangement, either party can move to nullify the original agreement and go for sole custody. The only basis for such a motion is that we do not agree to joint custody any more. On another point, before you move to Washington, talk to a lawyer in that state. It would appear that you could go to Washington to have your baby without actually moving there if Oregon law is more favorable to your position.

Right now, neither of you has any legal duty toward the other. You do not have to tell him your moving or your new address, if you don't want to. When the child is born, you have no obligation to tell him so. Either one of you can file a parentage action at that point to ask the court to declare him the legal father. If no one files, there is no legal duty to involve him with the child. Mediation is not an alternative to filing an action with the court. It is a way of settling on an agreement once a parentage action has been filed. In WA custody, as such, is not the issue. What's at issue is a parenting plan that determines residential time and decision making authority. Both parents are treated equally. I suggest you discuss this with a lawyer before you decide to involve him with the child. If you don't want to have to deal with him, then don't do that. If you decide you do want him in the child's life, then you will have to deal with him forever. Now is the time to make that decision based on actual knowledge not on your assumptions about how the process might work or what you may want.