Hospital in babies mix-up

STAFF at an Australian hospital mixed up two newborns and gave them to the wrong mothers, who breast-fed the infants before the mistake was caught.

A family member of one of the mothers noticed something was wrong and alerted staff after the mothers had been with the wrong infants for more than eight hours, said Stephen Roberts, chief executive of St John of God Hospital, in Geelong.

The infants' identification bracelets were not checked against the ID bracelets on the mothers. Staff apologised to both families.