Prague, Czech Republic

Prague, Czech Republic

7 December 2007

Other new parents had it worse.

Two Czech baby girls mistakenly swapped at birth only went home to their biological parents just before their first birthdays, Fox News reported on 7 Dec 2007.

The mix-up came to light just less than a year after both sets of parents brought the newborns home from a clinic in Prague, when a father became increasingly suspicious that his 10-month-old daughter didn’t resemble him.

DNA tests revealed they weren’t the biological parents.

Subsequent tests of the second couple also came back negative.

After allowing both babies to spend time with their birth parents in the subsequent few weeks, the two sets of parents agreed to swap their daughters on their first birthday “on the advice of a psychologist”.

"It's an attempt for a permanent solution," the father of one of the girls was quoted as saying.

The clinic in Trebic, southeast of Prague, called it a "regrettable" case and concluded that the mix-up was a result of "serious mistakes" made by two nurses, who have since been fired.