Horror struck Maisie Beth, a 22-year-old new mom when she realised the terrifying truth. In September, after giving birth to her daughter Isabelle at a Dorset hospital in England, Ms Beth went to change her baby's diaper. A wave of panic washed over her - she wasn't holding her daughter at all, but a baby boy.
"God knows what would've happened," Ms Beth told the New York Post, "I could've breastfed this baby or the mom could've woken up to an empty crib."
Sharing details, Ms Beth was informed by midwives that Isabelle needed phototherapy and would have to be placed in a special nursery. She decided to check on her newborn one night and found a midwife in an office holding a baby.
Ms Beth claimed, "The midwife came out of the office and told me to come in because they had Isabelle in there and I just assumed they had taken her out with her phototherapy crib while I was in the toilet."
"They [nurses] told me they had her there for a while because she's been crying a lot," she continued. "They told me that she looked exactly like me. At this point, it was so early and I was two days postpartum so I just didn't question anything and I took the baby back to my bed."
Later that night, when Ms Beth changed the infant's diaper, she discovered she cared for a baby boy, not her little daughter.
"My instant reaction was that somebody had stolen my baby," the mom recalled. "I was terrified after four years of infertility. I thought I'd lost my baby after giving birth to her."
Mr Beth believes that midwives mistakenly mixed up baby Isabelle and a newborn boy at the hospital, but it remains unclear if the mother of the boy ever realised the mix-up.
"The [other] mom was asleep on a completely different ward from me and I don't know if she ever knew that the baby was passed to me," she explained.
"As far as I'm aware, Isabelle was still in her phototherapy crib this whole time across the hall from me, but I have no idea what went on while I was in bed with the other baby."
The hospital has started an investigation into the matter.
Lorraine Tonge, director of midwifery at University Hospitals Dorset, told Caters: "We deeply regret any distress that was caused and have reached out to the mother to offer her support."
"We would urge her to get back in touch with us to assist us in our investigation," Tonge added. "The safety of our parents and babies is the highest priority and we are committed to providing full support to the affected families."
