Women give birth to each other’s babies after mix-up

TWO women in California who gave birth to each other’s babies after a mixup at a fertility clinic, have spent months raising children that were not theirs, it has been claimed.

The two mothers swapped the babies three months later after becoming suspicious that there had been a mistake at an IVF clinic, according to court documents.

Both babies were girls and were born a week apart in September 2019.

Daphna Cardinale, one of the mothers, became suspicious because the baby she gave birth to had a darker complexion than her or her husband, Alexander.

DNA tests later confirmed that the embryos had been swapped, according to a legal claim filed by the Cardinales against the clinic.

“The Cardinales, including their young daughter, fell in love with this child, and were terrified she would be taken away from them,” the complaint said.

“All the while, Alexander and Daphna did not know the whereabouts of their own embryo, and thus were terrified that another woman had been pregnant with their child, and their child was out in the world somewhere without them.”

At a press conference Mrs Cardinale said: “I was overwhelmed by feelings of fear, betrayal, anger and heartbreak.

“I was robbed of the ability to carry my own child. I never had the opportunity to grow and bond with her during pregnancy, to feel her kick.”

She added: “Instead of breast-feeding my own child, I breast-fed and bonded with a child I was later forced to give away.”

Breaking the news to her older daughter, now seven, had been “the hardest thing in my life”, she said. “My

‘I was robbed of the ability to carry my own child. I never had the opportunity to grow and bond with her’

heart breaks for her, perhaps the most.”

All four parents have made an effort to stay in each other’s lives and “forge a larger family”, Mrs Cardinale said.

She added: “They [the other parents] were just as much in love with our biological daughter as we were with theirs.”

The Cardinales have accused the California Center for Reproductive Health in Los Angeles of medical malpractice, breach of contract, negligence and fraud, and are seeking unspecified damages. The centre declined to comment.