When our first child, Sam, was born via Caesarian section, Speedy was waiting right outside the operating room. When Sam was brought out to be taken to the nursery, he followed, never losing sight of her. He watched as she was cleaned up, weighed, measured, wrapped in a blanket and placed in the bassinet inside the nursery. He memorized her every feature including the thick hair that covered her head.
When I could stand up, he brought me to the nursery. We looked through the window and despite the dozens of babies visible, he knew exactly which one Sam was despite the fact that the bassinet had been moved since the he was there a few hours earlier.
It might sound like paranoia to some but he had nightmares about babies getting mixed up in the hospital. Not that I blame him, especially after reading horror stories such as the one about a Malaysian couple who brought home the wrong baby from the hospital 30 years ago.
Teo Ma Leong had always suspected his fifth child was not his own.
The young boy’s dark features led neighbours to whisper that he was the result of an affair.
Meanwhile, Mr Teo’s biological son had always suspected he was not really the child of the Malay Muslim couple who took him home from a hospital in Batu Pahat in southern Malaysia in 1978.
So Zulhaidi Omar left home at 13 because he felt he did not belong…
Then eight years ago one of his sisters spotted him working in a shopping centre.
Convinced he was the spitting image of their father, she brought the rest of her family along.
After staring at one another for a while they found the courage to speak and the truth emerged.
DNA tests subsequently proved that the two men were father and son. [BBC News]
The story is actually more complex as it involves issues about changing names and renouncing religion. For me, those are peripheral issues — offshoots. The real tragedy was the baby mix-up 30 years ago. The mere thought that it can happen to anyone makes me shudder.
oh that would be a nightmare indeed! specially for the mother who stands to be suspected of 'hanky-panky' for birthing a child that doesn't look like her husband! how do the exchanged families cope up then? that's like birthing a new child all over again, or adopting. i believe in what they say about 'lukso ng dugo' but there are just too many factors involved to imagine that it isn't exactly going to be a happy reunion at first. but at least the mom would be justified after all that aggravation. but still, that's a major hassle for any family.
when i was in highschool, my mom was cleaning up some drawers at home and found paperwork from the hospital when i was born. she told me that something interesting happened at that time…
while she was still confined in the hospital after giving birth to me, they would get bills from another person in the hospital with her same exact name (she has a very common first and last name) who gave birth also to a girl at the same time. i know, such a coincidence. they would get an itemized list from the billing department everyday that included two deliveries, two obstetrician fees, two nurseries, etc and my dad had to tell them each time to stop mixing up the records. when they finally took me home, they still kept getting bills for the other woman's delivery. my dad had to show them the receipts and told them that he'd paid their bill in full when my mom was discharged. they fought for months with my dad telling them that my mom could not have given birth twice in one day and her obstetrician attested that it was a single birth not twins. it must've taken a year before everything got settled.
so i asked my mom — do you think i could've been switched? she said it was easy back then to get babies mixed up especially since she was so groggy from anesthesia at the time of delivery. but she insisted that my dad saw me after i came out and memorized me and that he could single me out from all the babies in the nursery. he had no doubt in his mind that i was his. my mom feels the same way. and if you ask me, i have no doubt that i belong to them. i wouldn't have it any other way. of course, except for the times when i couldn't get my way
buti na lang there are strict protocols here in the US hospital when i gave birth 5 years ago. they tag all parties (mom, dad and baby) and they take prints of the baby's palms and feet, among other things. mahigpit talaga. and like my dad and your hubby, mine also memorized our baby and he can single him out from all the babies in the nursery. must be a dad thing!
Lee, re#6. Ah, I also saw my second child right inside the operating room. I noticed her headful of hair, just like her Ate. oh my gosh, I'm getting mushy…
Re #7. so it isn't just in the nursery that babies get mixed up… pati sa morgue..???
Death in the family is such an emotional strain already but the wrong body… i don't have the words anymore.
Here in the States, we have birthing suites. They look like hotel rooms with your own sink, bathroom, TV, closet and a couch for Dad. The baby stays with the Mom after delivery, this way no switching will happen. It really takes a lot of stress from the new Mom. My son only left the birthing suite (for a few hours) when he had to be circumsized and that was after he was tagged for identification.
I was so concerned about that happening to my baby so what we did was to look for a hospital who specialized on birthing in our area. What we like about the hospital was: their baby wing in the hospital was given a higher level of security. Example: the moment a baby is discovered missing, an alarm is triggered and there will be a lockdown for the entire wing until they find the baby. They also have weighing scales and other apparatus on each birthing room so that they don't have to take the baby away from your side then they "tag" the baby with an electronic anklet to make sure the baby is not misplaced or switched. They also allowed the baby to room-in with mom during the whole stay in the hospital(not a good choice if you're trying to recuperate hours after the birth, this one I learned first hand). I could have identified my baby just by how loud her mouth was when she came out…hehehe.
I was surprised the bill was not more expensive compared to a non-specialized birthing hospital.
Laging nagp-play sa utak ko yang scenario na yan nung pregnant pa ko!
Tragic.
that was my thought too, poppycock. how do they really connect after all those years? they're strangers. awkward seems too mild a word to describe the aggravated feelings.
auee, between my husband and I, sya yung mas mag-iisip ng ganun. Ako, parating bangag sa anesthesia.
That was my initial fear with my second child because we left him at the hospital for three more days as I was not yet strong enough and my doctor wanted me to rest before nursing him.
But he's my son. The features don't lie. And the blood typing too. Hubby is type AB, and all my three kids B.
i never saw my firstborn until the second day after my delivery. never had the chance to look for any distinguishing marks to make sure we brought home the right baby. but as the years passed, she's starting to look more and more like me (and other members of my hubby's family. yes may hawig din daw ako sa mom in law ko) so i'm very sure that she's my baby.
with my second born, however, the doctor showed her to me right after she came out of my womb, and i got the chance to look for a distinguishing mark (very faint) before i passed out. well, the distinguishing mark is still there but she's starting to look too pretty for the rest of the family that i sometimes doubt if we brought home the right baby (of course, hubby insists that she got his looks. ya right
)
this one might sound like it came straight out of a TVJ movie but this really happened years ago. sorry, the details and the story's ending escape me…
my tita's driver did not have enough money to pay for the hospital bills of his child who passed away. since the hosp woud not release the body, the driver went to the hosp at midnight and "stole" the body from the morgue. when he got home and unwrapped his "loot" he found out that he just stole the wrong child!
Oh my. I'm giving birth soon, but I haven't thought of things like this happening. It's like a scene from a telenovela.
It reminds me of a childhood joke. You see, among my 2 other siblings, I am the only one with strikingly different facial features. I have always been mistaken for a Chinese. So, my parents would always joke around that I was mistakenly switched with another baby after I was delivered in the hospital, and that I was the baby of some unknown Chinese couple. But I knew then that they were just making fun of me and knew that I inherited my features from my real grandma, who is my father's real mom. 
And oh, by the way, thanks for the linkback Connie.