Baby breastfed by wrong mum in hospital newborn mix up in Sydney

One of the newborns was unintentionally handed back to the wrong mum, leaving her real mum devastated. Read the story here.

In a terrible mix up that took place in a hospital in Sydney recently, a newborn baby has been breastfed by a stranger after the identities of two newborns were bungled, according to The Sydney Morning Herald

The mix up reportedly took place at Gosford Hospital, leaving one mum terribly upset and potentially exposing the newborn to health risks.

On August 18, reports say that the newborns were taken to the nursery to let their mums, who shared a hospital room, get some rest. Unfortunately, one of the babies — Ellie — was unintentionally returned to the wrong mum.

The woman breastfed this baby girl while her own daughter was in the nursery. Reports say that “a midwife broke the news to Ellie’s mother, Stefanie Phillips, who was devastated to discover her newborn had been breastfed by a stranger.”

Stefanie told Seven News, “[I was told] the other mother has breastfed your daughter for two hours and got photos with her … skin-on-skin, did everything I wanted to do with her.”

Hospital newborn mix up in Sydney: Stefanie has not been able to get her baby to latch-on since the mix-up.

Reportedly, since the incident, Stefanie has not been able to get Ellie to breastfeed and has resorted to giving her formula.

“I was very overwhelmed, I had just become a new mum…” said Stefanie.

The mix-up appears to have happened because the “identification bracelets on the newborn babies were not cross-checked against the mother’s name.”

Both families have received apologies in-person from senior staff of the Central Coast Local Health District. Furthermore, blood tests have been conducted on both mums to rule out any disease risk, especially to the baby breastfed by the wrong mum.

Has a similar incident happened to you or anyone you know? Do share your experiences with our other readers by leaving a comment below.

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