Baby-swap mum: My joy at finding Moses ...and my heartbreak handing back Jacob
In her first interview, mother tells MoS ‘I’ll be scarred for ever’ British father: ‘We’ll always love both babies as our own’
IT WAS a moment of extraordinary joy and relief as a British father and his wife cradled the ‘miracle’ baby who had been snatched from them moments after his birth and whom they feared they would never see again.
But it was a moment also tinged with profound sadness.
Just seconds earlier, the couple had broken down in tears as they handed over the child they had loved as their own for three months, after the two newborns were swapped at birth.
Our exclusive photograph was taken as Rich Cushworth and wife Mercy were reunited with son Moses in the offices of El Salvador’s Attorney General on September 7.
‘It was such a rollercoaster of emotions,’ said Mrs Cushworth, speaking about holding her son for the first time. ‘On the one hand, I was elated to have my baby back in my arms, but just before this picture was taken I was sobbing and crying my heart out as I handed over Jacob, the baby I had loved and breast-fed for three months.
‘It was a joyous moment but you can see in my eyes that I was drained emotionally. Like the scar from my caesarean, the mark of what happened will scar my heart for ever.’
While the world has been gripped by the story of the El Salvador ‘baby swap’ for the past fortnight, The Mail on Sunday has been given unprecedented access by the family to tell their story.
The saga began on May 21 when Mrs Cushworth gave birth to Moses by caesarean a month prematurely at an exclusive clinic in San Salvador, capital of her native El Salvador. Her husband is a British citizen whose Bradford-born parents, David and Lynne, emigrated to Zimbabwe and then the US.
The couple became suspicious because the skin colour of the baby the hospital gave them to take home was darker than the boy Mrs Cushworth had given birth to. The parents also noticed the facial features were different and feared they had been victims of child traffickers.
Court-ordered DNA testing on four other boys delivered at the same clinic on the same day revealed that the Cushworths’ biological baby was with an El Salvadorian couple. The Attorney General immediately arranged for the children to be swapped back in his offices at 8.40pm on September 7.
An official probe into the mix-up is expected to last three months.
Last night, Moses’ parents spoke for the first time about being at the centre of a media firestorm and hit back at ‘wicked’ accusations that they might have arranged the baby swap to make money. ‘People are accusing me of being racist or of doing this to make money,’ Mrs Cushworth said. ‘I am not capable of doing what I’m being accused of. When I looked into my son’s eyes for the first time, I knew immediately it was him. Just as I knew instinctively when they handed me the first baby in the hospital that he was not mine.’
Mr Cushworth, 42, and Mercy, 39, met at a Dallas Bible college in 2012 and married in June 2013. Both are devout Christians who have travelled the world as missionaries.
Mr Cushworth said: ‘Mercy decided to give birth in El Salvador because that’s where her mum and support system is. I was working in Dallas and was due to fly down there but the baby came prematurely and was delivered by caesarean. I got there a couple of days later.’
According to Mrs Cushworth, she was briefly handed 6lb baby Moses in the delivery room before he was whisked away while she was under heavy sedation. The following morning, she was given a child who was browner in skin tone, had brown rather than blue eyes and ‘felt heavier’.
When she complained to nursing staff, she was told that babies ‘often’ change colour after birth.
‘From the minute they put the baby in my arms the morning after the birth, I knew it felt wrong,’ she said.
‘It didn’t look like the child I gave birth to. I was fighting the feelings of doubt. I felt I was being disloyal to my baby by doubting him.’
After the family returned to Dallas with baby Jacob, Mr Cushworth – who runs a painting company – says he too had doubts but dared not voice them.
‘Who wants to think those thoughts?’ he says, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Jacob was a beautiful baby, chubby and healthy, and I considered him a gift from God. The fact he didn’t look anything like me wasn’t something I allowed myself to dwell on.’
But by the end of August, Mrs Cushworth, who is about to start a Master’s degree to become a family therapist,
‘You can see in my eyes I was drained emotionally’
I love my new son but we will never forget the child we raised MOSES’ BRITISH FATHER RICH CUSHWORTH ‘The other couple were in a state of shock’
decided to order a DNA test. ‘The feeling wouldn’t leave me. Call it a mother’s instinct,’ she said.
‘I think I knew deep inside that Jacob wasn’t my baby but I fell in love with him. I breast-fed him, nurtured him. I loved him and still do. When we got the DNA results, I freaked out. I went hysterical. We came straight back to El Salvador. I had to find my baby.’ Mr Cushworth’s father David, a former detective inspector who met his wife of 46 years Lynne when they both served with Bradford Police, still has a picture of Jacob as the screensaver on his iPhone.
‘We all loved Jacob,’ he said, sitting in the ‘safe house’ in San Salvador where the family fled to escape the world’s media. ‘Like any proud grandparents, we had his picture on our fridge. He is brown-eyed and brown-skinned and gorgeous.
‘When we discovered the truth, we were devastated.’
Harrowing images of Mrs Cushworth screaming at obstetrician Alejandro Guidos – who was arrested for alleged child trafficking – were broadcast around the globe. ‘Doctor, where is my son?’ she sobbed as she lunged towards him.
The doctor has vehemently denied the charges and has told friends the Cushworths might have been complicit in the mix-up in order to profit by suing the prestigious Centro Ginecologico hospital. He is currently free on bail.
Mr Cushworth said: ‘My wife’s reputation is being destroyed on social media. She is being accused of conspiring with the other mother to swap babies to make money.
‘It’s just blatant lies. Anyone who knows Mercy knows she is a good Christian woman who could never be involved in anything like that. She’s spent her life helping people.’
He added: ‘It was even worse for the other couple than it was for us. We’d had a few days to get used to the idea that Jacob wasn’t ours. The other couple only found out that day. They were in pieces.
‘Jacob looked identical to the father. The other parents kept staring at Jacob. I knew as soon as I saw Moses that he was my son.’
The two couples met in the offices of Attorney General Luiz Martinez. Mr Cushworth said: ‘Mercy cried and we both kissed Jacob goodbye. It was heart-wrenching.
‘Then they handed us Moses. When I looked into his eyes for the first time, there was recognition. But the pain of giving away the other baby was intense. It was biblical. I’m still processing it all.’
His wife added: ‘When I handed over Jacob, my heart broke but then I held Moses in my arms and my heart flooded with love.’
Grandfather David took the photograph moments after the exchange took place. He said: ‘Both couples were in tears. It was immediately clear to everyone that Jacob and Moses belonged to the other. Jacob is the spitting image of his real dad and Moses looks identical to my son. The other couple were in a state of shock, in pieces.
‘We believe in miracles. God answered our prayers and we got our baby back. But we still love Jacob and want him in our lives. I pray we can keep in touch so Jacob and Moses can grow up knowing each other.’
Rich Cushworth added: ‘We love our son but we love Jacob too. Jacob will always be part of our family.’
The family are now waiting for a court to grant Moses a new birth certificate which will allow him to get a UK or El Salvador passport and US visa and return to Dallas.
The El Salvadorian couple has yet to be identified. Last night reports claimed they were preparing to go public and were seeking a financial deal to tell their side of the story.