Baby Swap

[polksaladallie]

If you found out that your baby was accidentally swapped for another woman's baby in the hospital, would you want to exchange babies later?

If so, at what age?  If you found out at one month, one year, five years, ten years.  Is there a point when you would leave things as they are?  Or would you want your own flesh and blood child with you at any age?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-11/french-families-girls-switched-birth-win-nearly-2-million-euro...

French families of babies swapped at birth win $2.7 million in compensation

[cherry*135]

This is another NZ one - 1946

A lively, dark-skinned boy who should have been raised a Lebanese Catholic instead grew up in a middle-class Presbyterian home, and a reserved fair-haired Anglo-Saxon lad took his place.

It was almost 60 years before Jim Churchman and Fred George discovered the truth through DNA tests.

How the hospital mix-up occurred has not been established.

The truth might never have emerged but for a schoolyard friendship that began in Timaru in about 1961.

Helen's husband, Gordon, was teaching there and Jim was sent to Timaru Technical College.

Fred's brother Michael, who was a year older, was sent from Dunedin to board in Timaru.

At school Jim Churchman and Michael George met and became close friends.

Jim started thinking more about his genes and family susceptibility to medical problems.

He had often remarked on how Fred was so like his brother Owen. With that in mind, Jim and Fred had DNA tests, which confirmed the switch.

Despite the previous questions, the results "took my breath away", Fred says.

They were 57. One parent still alive.

[cherry*135]

Creative crisis - the couple were in a much better financial position than the single mother. One family in a small city, the other in a town - about 30 mins apart.
I don't remember what initiated the need to investigate if there had been a baby swap.
May have been single mothers ex wanting proof child was his?

[polksaladallie]

I was googling trying to find a famous Australian case of a few decades ago which was all over the news for a long time.

Couldn't find it, but there seem to be a lot of cases all over the world.

[vicr3000]

One common theme that seems to run through all of these is, even if the mother (or father) have suspicions,

the "staff" of wherever seem to automatically brush it off as can't happen, impossible, neveras thought they

are infallable.

And it is only those like posted above who are forceful that overcome this resistance.

[azureline**]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

I was googling trying to find a famous Australian case of a few decades ago which was all over the news for a long time.

Couldn't find it, but there seem to be a lot of cases all over the world.

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this one?

 “On a winter's morning of June 1945 in the Victorian country town of Kyneton, two women each gave birth to a baby girl within minutes of each other. Both women spent over a week in hospital and then returned home to their delighted families. In the Morrison household . the grandmother took the child from its blankets and held it up to the light. After a few moments scrutiny she said to her daughter: 'This is not the baby I saw in hospital. You've got the wrong baby.' Then started one of the strangest and most tragic cases in Australian legal history - a protracted and bitter battle for the legal custody of a blonde girl which would make headlines throughout the world . was to involve some of the most notable legal figures in Australia and have tragic consequences for both daughters and their families - consequences which are felt even today.”

[polksaladallie]

Yes, thanks, Azure.  That's the one.

If I remember rightly, the other parents refused outright to swap back, even at the very young age.

My original post was to ask at what age would anyone let things stay.  Many children are ripped from their mothers at older ages and survive as long as the next mother provides love ++, but others do not.

[azureline**]

http://www.crispinhull.com.au/high-court-book/chapter-seven-unusual-and-interesting-cases/

[creative*crisis]

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@am*3 wrote:
Creative crisis - the couple were in a much better financial position than the single mother. One family in a small city, the other in a town - about 30 mins apart.
I don't remember what initiated the need to investigate if there had been a baby swap.
May have been single mothers ex wanting proof child was his?

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Thanks for the added information

[cherry*135]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Yes, thanks, Azure.  That's the one.

If I remember rightly, the other parents refused outright to swap back, even at the very young age.

My original post was to ask at what age would anyone let things stay.  Many children are ripped from their mothers at older ages and survive as long as the next mother provides love ++, but others do not.

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That is a hard one.

If  child was young - under 6mths, 1, 2 yo? DNA tests readily avail now and if tests proved the child had been swapped at birth, then I don't think it would affect the child.

The parents would have loved and bonded with the  baby/child they brought home from hospital though.

Really messes up about 6 people's lives.. 2 sets of parents, two children.