Babies switched at birth are babies who, because of either error or malfeasance, are interchanged with each other at birth or very soon therafter, leading them being unknowingly raised by parents who are not their biological parents. In real life, the occurrence of such a thing is highly improbable, with it having occurred, or having been asserted to have occurred, in a few cases. However, it is an idea that is a common staple in fiction. A human infant In basic English usage, an infant is defined as a child at the youngest stage of life, especially before they can walk or simply a child before the age of one. ... Childbirth (also called labour, birth, partus or parturition) is the culmination of a human pregnancy with the emergence of a newborn infant/s from the mothers uterus. ...

As a literary plot device

The plot device of babies who are switched at birth, or in their cradles, has been a common one in American fiction since the 18th century. It is one of the several identifiable characteristics of melodrama that are plot devices dealing with situations that are highly improbable in real life.^[1] A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ...

The use of this common theme has continued ever since. The device was used a number of times by W. S. Gilbert, including in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas H.M.S. Pinafore and The Gondoliers. In both cases, well-born babies were switched with commoners. Mark Twain, later used this plot device in The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1893), where two babies, one white and one black, are switched at birth, resulting in both passing for races that they are not.^[2] It is one of the themes that made for TV movies regularly exploited in the 1970s and 1980s.^[3] It continues to be a popular theme in the 1990s and 21st century with (for examples) it being employed as a plot device in Veronica Mars (the characters Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie and Madison Sinclair), in Neighbours (the characters Bree Timmins and Anne Baxter), and in The Young and the Restless (several times, including the characters Cane Ashby and Phillip Chancellor III, and the children of Lauren Fenmore Baldwin and Sheila Carter). Sir William Schwenck Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (November 18, 1836 – May 29, 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. ... W. S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan Librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896. ... Comic opera is a subcategory of opera, and denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: H.M.S. Pinafore H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass that Loved a Sailor, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... The Gondoliers, or The King of Barataria, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 — April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer. ... Puddnhead Wilson is a novel by Mark Twain. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... A television movie (also TV movie, TV-movie, made-for-TV movie, etc. ... This article is about the Veronica Mars television series. ... Cindy Mac Mackenzie is a fictional character on The CW television series Veronica Mars, portrayed by Tina Majorino. ... Madison Sinclair is a fictional character on The CW television series Veronica Mars. ... Neighbours is a long-running Australian soap opera, which began airing in March 1985. ... Breanna Bree Timmins (sometimes known as Trinity Black) is a fictional character on the popular Australian soap opera Neighbours, portrayed by Sianoa Smit-McPhee. ... Anne Baxter is a fictional character on the Network Ten soap opera Neighbours, portrayed by Tessa James. ... For the Australian band, see Young and restless (band). ... Ethan Cane Ashby (born Phillip Foster Chancellor III) is a fictional character in the American soap opera The Young and the Restless, portrayed by Australian actor Daniel Goddard since January 12th, 2007 (US airdate). ... Phillip Chancellor III was a fictional character in the soap opera The Young and the Restless. ... Lauren Ann Manning Fenmore Williams Grainger Baldwin is a fictional character who has appeared on both The Young and the Restless and its sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful. ... Sheila Carter Grainger Forrester Warwick was a fictional character who appeared on both The Young and the Restless and its sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful. ...

Although a common plot device in soap operas, it is not nearly as common as the theme of questionable paternity. Mumford states that the reason for this is that the potential causes for questionable paternity are far more wide ranging and richer in scope than those for questionable maternity, and thus provide a greater vein for soap opera scriptwriters to mine. Whereas questionable maternity can only be caused by error or malfeasance that causes babies to be switched at or after birth, questionable paternity can involve many aspects, ranging from a woman deliberately wishing to pin paternity on the wrong man, through unreported rape, to a clandestine love affair. It is relatively simple, moreover, for writers to retrofit questions of paternity to characters years on, whereas it is difficult to introduce questions of maternity after the fact.^[4] For Philippine soap opera, see Teleserye. ... Paternity is the social and legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a father and his child. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The device also occurs outside of American fiction, in stories such as The Little Michus.

In real life

In real life, such a switch is highly improbable.^[1] Cases that have occurred and made the newspaper headlines include:

• the case of Kimberly Mays, switched at birth as a result of a medical error in a hospital in Wauchula, Florida^[5], the events surrounding whom were subsequently dramatized as the made-for-TV movie Switched at Birth
• the cases of the children of two South African women, Margaret Clinton-Parker and Sandra Dawkins, whose sons were accidentally switched at birth in 1989, and who sued in the High Court of South Africa in Johannesburg in 1995, demanding damages of ZAR120,000 each from the government of the province of Gauteng for the error¹, and who were later that year awarded damages to cover medical expenses and the future projected costs of visiting their biological children^[6][7]

Hospitals take fingerprints, foot prints, or palm prints of newborns in order to prevent babies being mixed up. Nurses also double check with the mother, checking the identity of that person as well, in order to prevent errors.^[8][9] See also preventable medical errors In the United States medical error is estimated to result in 44,000 to 98,000 unnecessary deaths and 1,000,000 excess injuries each year. ... Wauchula is a city located in Hardee County, Florida. ... Switched at Birth is a 1991 Television film directed by Waris Hussein. ... The High Court of South Africa is a court of law in South Africa. ... City motto: Unity in Development Province Gauteng Mayor Amos Masondo Area  - % water 1,644 km² 0. ... ISO 4217 Code ZAR User(s) Common Monetary Area: Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland Inflation 5. ... Categories: South Africa stubs | Provinces of South Africa | Gauteng Province ...

Footnotes

• Note 1: Clinton-Parker v Administrator, Transvaal; Dawkins v Administrator, Transvaal 1996 (2) SA 37 (W)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Lori Merish (2004). "Melodrama and American Fiction", in Shirley Samuels: A Companion To American Fiction 1780-1865. Blackwell Publishing, 192. ISBN 0631234225. 
2. ^ Gregg Crane (2002). "The positivist alternative", in Ross Posnock: Race, Citizenship, and Law in American Literature. Cambridge University Press, 174–182. ISBN 0521010934. 
3. ^ Kerry Segrave (1999). Movies at Home: How Hollywood Came to Television. McFarland & Company, 139. ISBN 0786406542. 
4. ^ Laura Stempel Mumford (1995). "Plotting paternity: Looking for dad on the daytime soaps", in Robert C. Allen: To Be Continued. . .: Soap Operas Around the World. Routledge, 138–169. ISBN 0415110068. 
5. ^ Martin Guggenheim (2005). What's Wrong With Children's Rights?. Harvard University Press, 56. ISBN 0674017218. 
6. ^ "2 MOMS SUING OVER SONS SWITCHED AT BIRTH", The Deseret News, 1995-08-22. 
7. ^ Associated Press. "Damages awarded after babies switched", The Kansas City Star, 1995-10-22. 
8. ^ Joseph Bolivar De Lee (1966). Obstetrics for Nurses. London and Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 433. 
9. ^ Lawrence Joseph Stone and Joseph Church (1973). Childhood and Adolescence: A Psychology of the Growing Person. Random House UK Ltd, 46. ISBN 0394317238. 

The Deseret Morning News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utahs oldest continually published daily newspaper. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 22 is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 70 days remaining. ...

See also

• Kaspar Hauser — whom some hypothesize to have been the real child of Karl, Grand Duke of Baden, switched at birth with a dead child