The DNA test that showed two women had been swapped at birth

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3njqd9nl9o

Some people are desperate to state how they were doing mothering right, right from the beginning 🤔

Oh wow I hadn’t heard of cases in this country

I did see one on a tv programme (can’t remember which one it was!) of a case in Italy. The girls went to the same nursery when the mums realised something was amiss. They all moved in together for a while and the mums are still best friends, the girls now are adults and like sisters. So it all ended very well in that particular case (against all the odds)

This.

IMO people often feel like they don’t belong because they essentially haven’t had a positive experience.

Of the people who I know who have sought out birth parents, I’d say the vast majority did it because they felt they never fitted in with their adoptive families, whereas those who have happy upbringings tend to wait until their parents have died.

I wouldn’t seek out a child if I found out mine had been switched at birth. And ironically me and my mum were having this conversation just now, and she said the same as I had. If she found out that I’d been switched she wouldn’t tell me. Because you don’t just forget 50 odd years of life and suddenly welcome a daughter into your life.

I suspect Jesica didn’t have that great an upbringing either, and Claire may well live to regret her findings.

Certainly if that had been the case baby Alex Griffiths would never have been abducted or at least she would have been found very quickly.

Jessica is in the same situation as Clare, both had a bombshell dropped on them. Clare has chosen to meet her family and Jessica has made her choice. Neither is in the wrong. Of course Claire has realised her birth mother is elderly and time of of the essence.

I think that's what the rfid ones are - just thin plastic, as the photo above. No alarm.

Jessica’s birth mother is dead.

Family is about more than biology. If you have a baby by sperm or egg donation, if you have a baby through surrogacy, or a baby whose father doesn’t want to know, do you think about that child actually belonging to someone else because you’re not their family?

If this tie to blood is so important then we need to rethink the ethics around anything which results in a child being brought up by someone who isn’t biologically related to them.

So sperm/egg donation, surrogacy, step parenting/blending families. The exception possibly being adoption because adoption is usually done in the best interests of the child when they are at risk of abuse or harm.

But the rest - there’s no need for anyone to be bringing up a child which isn’t biologically theirs. After all, they’re not really that child’s family are they?

Thank you - it is indeed brilliant and very thoughtful and thought provoking.

RFID tags are passive. They don’t contain alarms.

I might be being dence but how would they be useful then? How would they stop this situation occurring?

That I don’t know. But they don’t cause alarms to go off or allow you to track them. They are like the chip you have in a cat or dog. You scan it and it contains certain information. So I guess the idea would be that if you had two baby Smiths then they wouldn’t get confused.

Wether the plastic bands have anything in them or not doesn't matter to me, as they just fell off DS' arm and leg! He was teeny though.

My last baby was 2009 and no tracker.

This. They are tiny, so easily contained in a wristband. They have no power, just like the chip in your credit card, so they can only be read when held close to a scanner. There is therefore no alarm even if you walk out of the unit with a baby wearing a tag.

There are a lot of people on this thread who clearly don't understand the technology.

I wonder how the other two brothers feel or whether they have remained loyal to Jessica.

Certainly if it transpired that my sister wasn’t biologically my sister I wouldn’t be looking to embrace the person who was just because they shared DNA. Especially not given the hurt it would cause to my actual sister, the one who has been a part of our family since birth.

The baby's/mother's information is contained in the tag and are matched so the baby can't be given to the wrong mother I think.
Someone on another thread has said labelling the baby is one of the first things they do after birth and before the baby goes anywhere.

What's the point of them then?

So they do exactly the same thing the bands which are written on do?

I’ve just watched this! They all coped with it so well. Thanks for the link.

Yes, seems so.

No idea but that is what they are. It’s like the chip in your car or dog, you can scan it to get information. I’ve got no idea how it helps in this situation but I do know that they can easily fit into a thin plastic wrist band.

To make sure mistakes like the one this thread is about can't happen.

I just watched that mixed blessings documentary and wasn’t it infuriating? The stupid pompous men who ignored and minimised the woman who knew, all those years.

I think the question is more what do the RFID bands do that written bands don't.

Maybe the implication is that pre-1980s babies weren't labelled at all.

But how?

They have no power, just like the chip in your credit card, so they can only be read when held close to a scanner. There is therefore no alarm even if you walk out of the unit with a baby wearing a tag.

Midwives are not wandering round with scanners, they are checking the written name on the tag.
How do these apparent chips prevent babies from being mixed up?