Birth pains

For some mothers, losing a newborn is worse than birth pains.

Marissa and Trisha gave birth to their sons on 6 December 2019 in the same hospital in Cagayan.

No baby tags were available then, and both moms' families noticed the swapping of towels used to wipe each baby clean.

Four years passed, and each mom and their family noticed that their children didn't have their physical features. Due to a strong suspicion that their babies were swapped at the hospital, Trisha reached out to Marissa on social media, and both agreed to see each other's child.

The two mothers and their respective in-laws quickly saw that the boys did not look like the families they were with, so they agreed to get DNA tests. Both mothers' and sons' DNA did not match, so a cross-match was conducted, which confirmed that Trisha's son was Marissa's and vice versa, KMJS reported.

To resolve the baby switching, the two families agreed to return the two children to their real parents gradually. Both families also filed a complaint with the Department of Health against the hospital for negligence.

Meanwhile, a couple from Surigao City recently brought their sick 2-month-old baby boy to a hospital in Davao City for treatment. A woman befriended them and offered to help pay for the P12,000 cost of the baby's treatment.

Trusting the woman, the father of the baby went to process the admission papers of his son. The woman asked the mother to pump breast milk for her baby and held the child while she did it. When the mom was done, the woman and the baby were gone.

A CCTV camera caught the woman taking the baby out of the hospital, so the police were called to pursue the abductor. With the help of a tip, police found the abductor's house and rescued the baby, according to KMJS.

Police learned that the abductor had also lost her 2-month-old baby to a kidnapper at a hospital. Out of despair, she abducted the baby to replace her missing child. She has been detained for prosecution.

In Japan, a woman who got pregnant through in vitro fertilization at a Tokyo hospital may lose her parental right to her own baby after birth.

Under Japanese law, infertility treatments are intended for married couples, with the husband assuming parenthood of the baby conceived through a donor sperm.

While the woman used sperm from her husband instead of from a donor, he had already died.

According to sources, the woman who desired to have a baby deliberately concealed her husband's death from the doctors, knowing that it would render her ineligible to continue IVF with donor sperm, Kyodo News reported.

She finally revealed her husband's death during a post-pregnancy consultation in June, according to Kyodo News.

The mom, hospital, and the government are now in a dilemma as there is no law covering cases in which the husband dies during IVF treatment. An option to get the sperm donor to accept recognition as the child's father is obviously impossible.