Mums stick with swapped babies

This would never fly in the USA


From correspondents in Czech Republic

October 13, 2007 07:00am

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THE Czech mothers at the centre of an astonishing baby mix-up have refused to swap back their daughters.

The two women, who have cared for the girls for 10 months, said they could not go through with the exchange agreed earlier this week.

Jaroslava Trojanova and Jaroslava Cermakova, both 25, gave birth in the southern Czech town of Trebic in December.

But it was only last month that the suspicions of one of the fathers led to the disclosure their children had been accidentally exchanged in hospital.

Ms Cermakova and her husband Jan have been living with Veronika, although their real daughter is Nikola.

Ms Trojanova and her partner, Libor Broza, took home Nikola, although Veronika is really their child.

The families struggled to cope with their extraordinary predicament before deciding on a pre-Christmas swap.

But yesterday, Ms Trojanova was adamant she could not give up her non-biological baby.

"I cannot even begin to imagine a life without Nikola," said the factory worker.

"How can I now see her as someone else's child and not my own?"

Ms Cermakova, who is pregnant again, also insisted she would not hand over the girl she was given.

"I have loved my daughter for almost a year now," she said.

"This time cannot be erased from my heart.

"But I will learn to love my other, biological daughter too."

The couples have moved into a retreat and have discussed raising the children as "one big family".

Disagreeing with his partner, Mr Broza, 29, insisted he wanted to take home his real daughter, Veronika.

The county court in Zdar Nad Sazavou ruled on Thursday the birth certificates would not be changed and that the couples should simply swap babies.

The Daily Mail, in The Courier-Mail