Two women, now aged 23, have told their story of how they were switched at birth and lived with the wrong parents for 3 years following a mix-up at the hospital. Their story has now been turned into a book 'Sisters Forever' that charts their remarkable story.
In 1998 on the Italian island of Sicily two mothers, Caterina Alagna and Melissa Fodera, both aged 23, gave birth to daughters. While the babies were out of sight of their mothers, the hospital made an error resulting in each family getting the wrong baby. Despite the fact they were wearing different clothes, the families both put this down to the hospital dressing them in new clothing without their knowledge.
For 3 years, both children were raised separately with no knowledge of what had actually happened. That was until Alagna was picking her 'daughter' up from pre-school and noticed that a child at the school, Caterina, looked a lot like her other daughters.
After speaking to the mother of Caterina, the two realised that they had shared a maternity ward together and that an accidental swap had taken place.
Alagna said:
"I recognized Caterina's mother, Gisella Fodera, from the maternity ward and got suspicious — 15 days later we did DNA tests and my mind went blank. It was too surreal, too impossible."
Two women switched at birth reveal their mothers raised them as SISTERS after discovering the mix up https://t.co/hhONjXQre1
— Daily Mail Femail (@Femail) September 16, 2021
The difficulty now arose as to what to do next. It would, of course, be impossible to give up the child they had raised for three years, but also difficult to accept your biological child had been taken from them by mistake.
Fodera told reporters:
"I challenge anyone to raise a daughter for three years then give her up over a simple mistake."
Amazingly, both families worked together to make sure that they bonded with one another, even living in the same home. Eventually, new arrangements were made where custody would be shared between the two families.
Fodera says:
"At first, loving Melissa, my biological daughter, felt like betraying the daughter I had raised, but today Melissa and I truly feel like mother and daughter."
Melissa and Caterina were not told about the switch for another 5 years, when they were 8. However it does not seem to have affected them in the long term. Melissa says:
"It seemed like a game and today neither of us have any memory of life before we were three. Growing up I had Marinella as a second mother, as she still is."
Women accidentally switched at birth raised as sisters by both families https://t.co/QGY6nfboyw pic.twitter.com/bx9lzTvCW7
— 98.7 KLUV (@KLUV987) September 21, 2021
The 'sisters' have remained close throughout their lives and even attended college together, theirs is a bond built from the most bizarre of circumstances.
[h/t: Upworthy]
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