Thread: New Mom Sent Home With Wrong Baby

With today's "drive-through" deliveries, you probably don't have enough time to even recover from any anesthetic or pain medication to really know what your baby looks like. When I had my kids we were kept in hospital two days for a routine delivery, longer for a c-section or anything else out of the ordinary.

in the hospital here they put a band around the mother, father and baby with a bar code on it. The bar code has to match the mother/father before they leave it in the room or before you leave the hospital.

Originally Posted by ttistin

in the hospital here they put a band around the mother, father and baby with a bar code on it. The bar code has to match the mother/father before they leave it in the room or before you leave the hospital.

Every hospital should be doing this. That is so simple, yet so effective.

My DIL was in a birthing center. The mother and baby are never separated. She had excellent care and went home in a few days.

I really don't know what woman would want to stay in the hospital to recover when home is more comfortable for a new baby. Maybe a woman who has a lot of kids at home, then she would like to have the vacation.

My hubby worked for a GYN/OB who delivered her baby then got up and delivered a patient's baby the same day. We have a friend who delivered her baby at home then got up and handed out Halloween candy that evening. I don't know how they did it but maybe it was because both women had a lot of children so they knew what to do.

I seen this on one of the news shows (Entertainment Tonight , The Insider, or Inside Edition) that I watch, can't remember which one.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30704907/

HEPPNER, Ore. - On a spring day in 1953, two baby girls were born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in eastern Oregon. They grew up happily, got married, had kids of their own and became grandparents. Then last summer their lives were turned upside down.

Kay Rene Reed Qualls found out that she and DeeAnn Angell Shafer were switched at birth.

They recently met for the first time and underwent DNA tests after a woman who knew both their mothers called Qualls' brother with her suspicion.

Qualls' brother, Bobby Reed, said the 86-year-old woman knew his mother and had also lived next door to the Angell family.

"She said she had something she had to get off her chest," he told the East Oregonian newspaper in a story published Monday.

Rumors of a mix-up
The woman, whom he declined to identify by name, told him that his mother, Marjorie Angell, had insisted back in 1953 she had been given the wrong baby after the nurses returned from bathing the two newborns, but her concerns were brushed off.

"It looked like Kay Rene in about 7th or 8th grade," he said.

But it wasn't. It was DeeAnn Shafer's sister.

"Kay Rene is not a Reed," the woman insisted. "DeeAnn is a Reed."

Bobby Reed was stunned, learning later that rumors of a mix-up had been around for years. In early February, Shafer learned the truth in a telephone call from her sister, Juanita.

"Do you remember those rumors of being switched at birth?" she asked, and went on to provide the update.

"Does this mean I'm not invited to the family reunion?" Shafer joked.

Qualls, Bobby Reed and one of their sisters met Shafer at a Kennewick, Wash., clinic last month for DNA testing. A week later, Qualls got the results, learning her likely probability of being related to her brother and sister was zero.

"I cried," she said. "I wanted to be a Reed — my life wasn't my life."

Shafer's DNA report said she had 99.9 percent of being related to Bobby and Dorothy Reed. Now living in Richland, Wash., Shafer said the report only confirmed what she knew after meeting Qualls.

"After seeing Kay Rene, I went home and told my husband, I don't know why she's doing the DNA testing," she said. "I was shocked — she looked just like my sister's twin."

Pioneer Memorial Hospital offered to pay for counseling, but both women declined.

The two have become friends and celebrated their May 3 birthday together. Recently, Qualls introduced Shafer to her work colleagues, calling her "my swister."

"I'm trying to move forward (and) look at the positive," Shafer said. "You can't look back. It just drives you crazy."

All our hospitals do the same with the bands. You have to keep them on until you are at home and they don't reissue lost ones. Plus they have like a anti theft in them so if a baby crosses a certain line with the band still on, all the doors and elevators immediately close.

Originally Posted by janelle

I really don't know what woman would want to stay in the hospital to recover when home is more comfortable for a new baby. Maybe a woman who has a lot of kids at home, then she would like to have the vacation.

Who says they dont want to go home? I had to stay in the hospital additional time after my son was born because of complications.

You havent delivered a child, correct? I dont see how you can judge unless you have gone through child birth.