My twin daughters were switched at birth when the hospital gave them each other’s names by accident – but I decided not to switch them back
A mother has revealed her twin daughters were switched at birth after the hospital accidentally gave them the wrong names.
To go to TikTokSaffron Crisp from Ipswich explained that when she was pregnant with fraternal twins, who are now four months old, hospital staff called them Twin A and Twin B.
Twin A was the smaller of the two and was closest to the cervix, meaning staff told Saffron that she would be the first child born. Saffron and her partner decided to name Baby A Delilah and Baby B Azayla.
However, when she had to abandon her plans for a natural birth and undergo an emergency caesarean, the midwife delivered twin B first, prompting Saffron to name her Delilah. It was only later that the consultant revealed that twin B had been born first.
Although she was initially surprised by the revelation, the mother of two decided not to change the babies’ names back to what she originally wanted, and now she even considers the blunder a “funny story.”
Saffron Crisp (pictured) from Ipswich took to TikTok to reveal her twin daughters were switched at birth
“I’m glad their names changed, honestly. It’s a funny story that they were actually each other’s names,” she explains in a TikTok clip.
Saffron continued: ‘My twins were switched at birth and this is the story behind it. They are still my children.
‘So when you’re pregnant with twins, they call you twins twin A and twin B, and in my belly [pointing to her children] “This was twin A and this was twin B.”
‘Twin A was the smallest twin, she was closest to the exit, and we were told that Twin A would come out first no matter what.
“When they were still in our bellies, we decided to give them names. Twin A was called Delilah and twin B was called Azayla.”
Saffron continues: ‘I wanted a natural birth but it didn’t go to plan so I had to have an emergency caesarean section.
‘When they took the babies out, they let me get a quick look at them on the screen, and then Delilah was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit. [neonatal intensive care unit].
‘So I had Azayla and throughout my pregnancy Azayla was the biggest baby. So I thought, “Oh my God, she’s so tiny, how tiny Delilah is going to be, Delilah is only going to be half her size.” I panicked because I thought she was going to be in the neonatal intensive care unit for ages.’
“Well, when they wheeled Delilah into my room six hours later, she was huge. I thought, ‘Is that my baby? Are you sure that’s my baby?’ I expected Delilah to be a tiny little baby, because like I said, in my belly, Delilah was my little baby.”
Hospital staff had wrongly told Saffron that twin A was born first, but it was actually twin B
Pictured: Saffron and Lewey’s non-identical twin daughters, now four months old
The mother of two took to TikTok to explain the ordeal, explaining that she now finds it funny
Later that day the specialist, a twin specialist, came in and said that they had ‘taken the wrong baby first’.
She said, ‘So the wrong baby came out first, and because I just said the first baby was Delilah and the second baby was Azayla, they just picked out the one they wanted and named her Delilah.’
However, Saffron and her partner Lewey decided not to switch them back, as baby A “is an Azayla through and through” and twin B “is a Delilah”, she added: “They just look alike in their names.”
Saffron concluded: ‘And I think I probably would have turned them around even if they had come out the other way.
“I’m glad they changed names, honestly. It’s a funny story that they were actually each other’s names.”
The story follows a mother who was shocked when she realized the baby she was caring for was not her newborn daughter.
Maisie Beth, 22, from Poole, was stunned when she went to change her daughter’s nappy and saw it was a boy.
Now the mother of two laughs about the ordeal and thinks she would have reversed the names anyway
Pictured: Saffron and Azayla with their father Lewey in the hospital shortly after the birth
The mother of two was told that twin A had come out of the womb first, but it was actually twin B
The mother stormed into the maternity ward at Poole Hospital demanding to know where her child, Isabella, nicknamed Belle, had been taken.
She said, “God knows what would have happened. I could have breastfed the baby, but the mother could have woken up to an empty crib.”
Maisie gave birth to her daughter in September and because she needed phototherapy (a treatment for jaundice using LED lights) and had a tube inserted into her body, Belle had to be monitored every two hours and was placed in a nursery alone.
Maisie told how one evening she went to visit her baby and when she walked back to her room she found the midwife in the office with Belle.
She was confused because Belle had to stay in her crib because she needed phototherapy, but without a fight she accepted it and walked back to her room with her child.
It wasn’t long before Maisie had to put her newborn back into the phototherapy bed, where she made her shocking discovery.
The midwife was in fact not caring for Belle in the office and had given her the wrong child.
As Maisie undressed Belle to put her in the crib, she changed her diaper and realized it was a boy. And she was someone else’s newborn.
In complete panic, Maisie ran to the office to find her daughter. The midwife explained that Maisie looked identical to the boy’s mother and that was why she had delivered the wrong baby.
Saffron (pictured with Azayla) believes the names she’s given her daughters suit them better, even though they were originally intended the other way around
Maisie said: ‘I went to the toilet [and] on the way back the midwife came out of the office and told me to come in because they had isabella in there. i just assumed they had taken her out with her phototherapy bed while i was on the toilet.
‘They told me they had been there for a while because she was crying a lot. I thought it was strange because she wasn’t allowed out of her phototherapy bed and I had just cuddled a baby in the nursery.
Maisie continued: ‘I thought, ‘Oh gosh, I hope no one noticed I was cuddling a baby that wasn’t mine.’
‘Nurses then told me that they [the other mother] looked exactly like me. At that point it was still so early and I was two days postpartum so we just didn’t question anything and I took the baby back to my bed.
‘The mother slept in a completely different ward to me and I don’t know if she ever knew the baby had been passed on to me.
“My first reaction was that someone had stolen my baby. I was terrified after four years of infertility. I thought I had lost my baby after I had given birth to her.
Pictured: The mother of two with her daughter Delilah, who was originally supposed to be named Azayla
Saffron said that even if her daughters had been born correctly, she probably would have changed their names anyway
‘As far as I know, Isabella was in her phototherapy bed across the hall the entire time, but I have no idea what happened when I was in bed with the other baby.
‘When I saw her again, I felt an inexplicable relief. She was still asleep in her little car and it seemed as if nothing had happened to her.
“But I immediately felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for the other mother. After the incident, it was never really discussed again.”
Lorraine Tonge, director of maternity at University Hospitals Dorset, said: “We are investigating an incident on our maternity unit in September 2023 where a baby was given to the wrong mother.
‘We deeply regret the distress caused and have contacted the mother to offer her support.
“We would urge her to contact us again to assist us with our investigation. The safety of our parents and babies is our highest priority and we are committed to providing full support to the families affected.”