Sicilian moms Caterina Alagna and Melissa Fodera were both 23 years old when they went into labor at the same maternity ward on December 31, 1998. A huge mistake was made during the New Year celebrations at the hospital.
The babies were switched to the wrong mothers.
Both mothers asked staff at the hospital why their daughters weren’t wearing the clothes that they had brought. They were assured by the hospital staff that this was an error.
Three years later, Alagna saw that Melissa’s preschooler, Caterina was very much like her daughters. It clicked for her when she found out that the little girl was actually the mother of the woman she shared the hospital’s maternity ward with.
Could it be that their daughters were bred differently?
Two women switched at birth reveal their mothers raised them as SISTERS after discovering the mix up
https://t.co/hhONjXQre1— Daily Mail Femail (@Daily Mail Femail)1631782801.0
“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,” Alagna said according to Central Recorder.
How could these mothers continue to raise the wrong child when they knew it? How could they let go of the three-year-old child they raised?
“I challenge anyone to raise a daughter for three years then give her up over a simple mistake,” Fodera explained to the Times UK.
Both mothers decided to ease into a possible child exchange by having their families share time in the same home. After experts suggested they separated for a six-month trial period, the plan was abandoned.
Women accidentally switched at birth raised as sisters by both families https://t.co/QGY6nfboyw https://t.co/bx9lzTvCW7
— 98.7 KLUV (@98.7 KLUV)1632235505.0
The two families soon merged together and the girls bonded like twin sisters. The girls would spend weekends with their families, share birthdays and spend many days together. “They chose to live together during the weekends and free time. And the girls were classmates until college,” Mauro Caporiccio, author of the book “Sisters Forever,” told the Times U.K.
It was initially confusing but things turned out well.
“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,” Fodera said.
Melissa and Caterina were only eight years old when they learned of the switch, but it hasn’t caused any problems. Their legal names are the only problem they have.
“It seemed like a game and today neither of us have any memory of life before we were three,” Melissa said. “Growing up I had Marinella as a second mother, as she still is,” She said.
“The girls effectively grew up with four parents and eight grandparents, and the experiment worked,” Caporiccio said. “Today they are more like twins than sisters and there is a kind of love which binds the two families.”