Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Long Lost Family - Swapped at Birth

8 replies

Algarythmnmadness · 07/06/2022 13:42

Did anyone watch this last night?

OMG it was so emotional. Two newborn babies in an air raid shelter in WW2 ended up back with the wrong parents.

The programme also featured 2 families in Italy in the 90's where the babies were switched at birth. They figured out what had happened but the children were 3 at this point.

Long story short they had to switch back to their biological babies.

It made me so so emotional. I have 3 year old twins, both me & DH said that we just couldn't do it. Biological or not, that is my child no matter what the DNA said. But on the other hand how do you cope with knowing that the baby you gave birth to is with someone else.

I can't even begin to get my head around how you would deal with something like that.

OP posts:
Yoloohno · 07/06/2022 13:47

I thought the family of those girls were amazing, the girls have a close bond and it seems more like an extended family.

The other story was more heartbreaking, I feel that the other poor woman who was swapped was absolutely distraught about it all, it didn’t seem right that it was televised.

One woman got her answers but in doing so she destroyed the identity of another elderly person. I can’t imagine how she’d be able to get over it.

Original poster
Algarythmnmadness · 07/06/2022 13:51

Yoloohno · 07/06/2022 13:47

I thought the family of those girls were amazing, the girls have a close bond and it seems more like an extended family.

The other story was more heartbreaking, I feel that the other poor woman who was swapped was absolutely distraught about it all, it didn’t seem right that it was televised.

One woman got her answers but in doing so she destroyed the identity of another elderly person. I can’t imagine how she’d be able to get over it.

Totally agree with everything you said. The bond the italian families had was just incredible.

My DH from the start said that he didn't think it was right, basically exploding a bomb on that poor family, and by the end of the programme I totally agreed with him.

OP posts:
HoppingPavlova · 07/06/2022 13:55

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of my (adult) kids was inadvertently swapped at the hospital. In fact, I’d be more surprised if DNA said we were biologically related. Have thought this for many years and have also had friends bring it up, unprompted, as a strong possibility.

I never looked into it when they were younger as I didn’t give two hoots about ‘biological’, they were mine and I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything that may have involved losing them. I was always quite scared that there was another family out there somewhere who may have had suspicions, pursued it and wanted their biological child back. I was very relieved when they got to an age where a court would have taken what they wanted into account should this have occurred, but it was a nervous wait. I love them every bit as my other kids who I’m positive are mine.

Now just waiting for the day I get some pesky DIL who is into DNA ancestry and upsets the apple cart😡. I’m 100% convinced DS would never want to pursue some other biological family, but would a DIL respect that, or badger and go ahead anyway?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families TV
Georgeskitchen · 07/06/2022 14:07

I watched it yes it was difficult to watch for the Italian mums and for the elderly lady who had never suspected she had been swapped. Once the genie is out of the bottle it can't be put back.
I'm glad the Italian families found a compromise but God it must have been hard for them!!

axolotlfloof · 07/06/2022 14:16

HoppingPavlova · 07/06/2022 13:55

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of my (adult) kids was inadvertently swapped at the hospital. In fact, I’d be more surprised if DNA said we were biologically related. Have thought this for many years and have also had friends bring it up, unprompted, as a strong possibility.

I never looked into it when they were younger as I didn’t give two hoots about ‘biological’, they were mine and I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything that may have involved losing them. I was always quite scared that there was another family out there somewhere who may have had suspicions, pursued it and wanted their biological child back. I was very relieved when they got to an age where a court would have taken what they wanted into account should this have occurred, but it was a nervous wait. I love them every bit as my other kids who I’m positive are mine.

Now just waiting for the day I get some pesky DIL who is into DNA ancestry and upsets the apple cart😡. I’m 100% convinced DS would never want to pursue some other biological family, but would a DIL respect that, or badger and go ahead anyway?

How is your son so different that you think he is unrelated?
In mixed race families siblings can have entirely different skin colours.

miltonj · 07/06/2022 16:06

HoppingPavlova · 07/06/2022 13:55

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of my (adult) kids was inadvertently swapped at the hospital. In fact, I’d be more surprised if DNA said we were biologically related. Have thought this for many years and have also had friends bring it up, unprompted, as a strong possibility.

I never looked into it when they were younger as I didn’t give two hoots about ‘biological’, they were mine and I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything that may have involved losing them. I was always quite scared that there was another family out there somewhere who may have had suspicions, pursued it and wanted their biological child back. I was very relieved when they got to an age where a court would have taken what they wanted into account should this have occurred, but it was a nervous wait. I love them every bit as my other kids who I’m positive are mine.

Now just waiting for the day I get some pesky DIL who is into DNA ancestry and upsets the apple cart😡. I’m 100% convinced DS would never want to pursue some other biological family, but would a DIL respect that, or badger and go ahead anyway?

Love how you've already fell out with your DIL that you don't have yet 😅

HoppingPavlova · 07/06/2022 22:56

How is your son so different that you think he is unrelated?

Dont want to be identifying but think along the lines of we are both Caucasian and they look like another ethnicity. The hospital I gave birth in was very much a ‘white’ demographic but this particular ethnicity is not uncommon. Baby didn’t room in with me for over 24hrs but was kept in nursery due to some issues and just brought in for feeds.

When they were young other parents assumed we’d had IVF (along the lines of ‘we had IVF as well, it’s so hard isn’t it’), and some kids at school told them their parents said they must have been adopted. I even had Dr’s they saw just make the assumption of IVF and state it as fact.

All moot though really as they are ‘mine’ irrespective.

PixellatedPixie · 07/06/2022 23:03

During the apartheid days in South Africa, everyone has to be classified according to race and there were sometimes kids born to parents where the parents looked typically Caucasian and the kids looked mixed race. In the most well known case the daughter of a Caucasian couple looked mixed race but she was proved to genetically be their daughter.

Do you ever wonder where your supposedly biological children might be? How is it possible that both of your kids were swooped at birth or are they twins? If they are twins surely sits less likely both were swapped too?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page