Two m o t h e r s have been lef t traumatised after their respective newborn babies were mistakenly swapped by nurses at Ndola Teaching Hospital on Saturday. The babies were born to the two women who share the same name of Natasha Mulenga. The incident has also left relatives and other mothers in the labour ward shocked.

According to Natasha Mulenga’s sister, Juliet Chilungu, her sister gave birth on Friday through caesarian section. She said her baby weighed 3.3 kilogrammes while the other child weighed two kilogrammes. Mrs Chilungu said the two mothers gave birth on the same day but at different times. She accused nurses at the hospital of being negligent by giving her sister another woman’s baby. Mrs Chilungu said her sister rejected the baby because she knew what her child looked like.

“When my sister followed the nurses, they kept telling her that the baby was collected by another family and they were doing everything possible to find the baby,” she said.

According to Mrs Chilungu, on Saturday around 22:00 hours, the hospital management called to inform her that they had found the family which got her sister’s baby. Mrs Chilungu said the two mothers were reunited with their babies and that the hospital has re-admitted the infants. The babies will only be discharged after 10 days of observation. Apparently, the baby who was taken home was breast-fed by the wrong mother. “The two mothers are traumatised and my sister was confused.

She refused to get the other baby because hers resembles her,” she said. Ndola Teaching Hospital spokesperson Sheona Kamwendo confirmed the swapping of the babies. Ms Kamwendo said in an interview that the situation is being rectified. She said the nurses on duty mistakenly swapped the babies because the two mothers bear same names and gave birth on the same day, although at different times. “We are rectifying the situation and the babies