There are times when you look at your kid -especially when he/she is behaving like a little hellion- and you think to yourself, “There’s no way that could be MY kid- where did s/he come from??”
Many of us have joked about our baby having been swapped by the hospital if he or she doesn’t bear a close resemblance to Mom or Dad, am I right?
(We still don’t know where our third daughter got her red hair… but her attitude ensures she’s definitely ours).
But one mother’s near-baby swap story makes the whole baby-swap joke a lot less amusing & a lot more, “What the actual fu-”
A mom’s TikTok clip has gone viral after she shared her experience with a maternity wing almost handing her the wrong newborn… not once, but TWICE.
TikTok user @marieelizabeth posed a “Question Of The Day” to TikTok’s general audience, asking users:
What would you do if you found out your two-year-old child was not actually yours because of a mix up at the hospital?
(I’m sure many parents in the throes of dealing with a Threenager might be tempted to gleefully respond with, “Ship ’em back!”…)
But on a serious note, the idea of finding out that the child that you assumed you gave birth to & have been raising for two years is not yours is pretty damn scary, no??
Mom Becky Martin weighed in with her own experience being given the wrong baby, & as a parent, it make you go hmmm… (and YIKES!).
Becky explains that:
So I actually have had my babies switched by the hospital.
Not once, but twice.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… give me the right baby, dammit. Seriously.
While Becky quickly points out that the confusion was sorted out within minutes (rather than two years, as the original question posed), it’s still pretty disturbing to think of any hospital handing you the wrong baby, period!
Here’s how the dirty deeds went down:
The first time the staff wheeled a baby boy into Becky’s room, telling her that they had already fed him.
Great, right?
Sure, except Becky was breastfeeding her baby, so the bottle-fed baby in the bassinet was definitely not her son- whoops!
The hospital staff’s response:
Oh, sorry, wrong baby!
The mystery Baby Boy was quickly whisked away, & you can’t help but wonder if HIS mom knew he was almost passed off to another mother.
A rather scary close call, but hey, hospital staff are human, & mistakes happen, right? I mean, at least it only happened once, & was quickly resolved with correct parentage still intact.
Well… ok, twice. TWICE.
When Becky Martin had her second child years later, the maternity staff again almost gave her the wrong baby.
The staff wheeled in a baby girl announcing,
Here’s your daughter!
… which is normally a very “yay!” moment for the parents of a newborn, except in this case, there was one small problem:
We said, “She’s already with us!”
Yep. The Martins already had their newborn daughter in the room with them, but the staff apparently had no idea & attempted to bring them another baby: someone else’s newborn daughter.
As Becky’s TikTok clip went viral, people had THOUGHTS.
Since Becky had given birth to her children nearly ten years ago, there were plenty of comments pointing out that maternity wards have come a long way to ensuring babies are correctly designated to the proper parents.
Most hospitals have policies requiring matching ID bracelets for mom & baby, & have procedures in place to check both each & every time a baby is brought back to Mom’s room.
Hospitals have also encouraged “rooming-in” options, where the newborn remains in the same room with it’s mother rather than in the nursery.
Becky created an additional TikTok clip to address questions; she was happy to see that hospitals have come a long way to prevent baby mix-ups.
But even though these policies are surely helpful, baby mix-ups still happen… a lot. Apparently.
Becky:
But also based on comments, it looks like my experience was NOT an anomaly.
What the WHAT…??
She then shared screenshots of the comments from users reporting similar experiences with babies being mixed up at the hospital, & oh my WORD- there were tons.
No, seriously, tons.
Does anyone have the right baby? WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE??
Becky concluded her clip by saying that the experience was valuable in forcing her to realize that she needed to advocate for herself (in terms of birth & postpartum care), & urges viewers to do the same.
So thanks, TikTok, for reminding us to double-check those baby ID bracelets, & for scaring the crap out of parents everywhere who are resisting the urge to scrutinize over those newborn pics… just in case…
Here’s the link to Becky Martin’s TikTok clip in full:
@becky.0121 #stitch with @marieeliza #switched #switchedatbirth #hospital #hospitalbirth #obgyn #homebirth #momsoftiktok #momsofmany #babies #fyp #ASOSFashunWeek