That would be the one question every parent or anyone who ever hopes to give birth in a hospital wants to know. A short investigated found that nurses failed to check the numbers on the babies' identification bracelets against those their mothers were wearing. The mix up occurred in the nursery in the hospital, where the babies were apparently being cared for. After being released from the St. John of God hospital in Geelong, the babies were with the wrong parents for eight and a half hours, and were both breastfed. One of the babies' family members apparently noticed that something was not quite in order.
The hospital's director Stephen Roberts described the event as a "terrible tragedy" and added: "We've placed the families and mothers in this situation. Our protocols and processes broke down and we're deeply apologetic and regretful for the pain and concern that we've caused these families. It s obviously a great time in any young family's life and for us to have contributed to this situation, it disturbs us that it's happened. We are trying to do everything we can to support them and to ensure that it's our mistake and not theirs."
Wow, is all we can say here at SteadyHealth. Although most hospitals have very efficient safety measures in place to prevent this kind of mix up from happening, mistakes do happen. We would encourage all new mothers to take pictures of their newborns right after giving birth (which you will want anyway) and to carefully look at the physical traits of their new babies. if you are going for IVF, baby mix ups can even occur before they are born. To read more about this, take a look at embryo mix-up: what if it happens to you?
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