A distraught mum has been left in a state of permanent confusion after she claims hospital staff mixed up her twins, leaving her unsure which baby is which.
Saffron Crisp shared her shocking story of how a mix-up during delivery turned her well laid plans upside down.
She had carefully chosen names for her twin girls before they were even born but when the midwife pulled out the “wrong” baby first, her plan was thrown into chaos.
The mum explained that she had named the babies before they were born but after the birth, she was left unsure of her twin’s true identities.
She said: “My consultant came in, he said they pulled the wrong baby out first!
“So the wrong baby came out first and because the first baby out is Delilah, the second baby out is Azayla.”
The mum from Ipswich, Suffolk, UK, told how she named her twins whilst they were still in the womb.
Labelled baby A and baby B, she called A, Delilah and B, Azayla presumed they would be born in that order.
The confusion started when Saffron, who had been planning for a natural birth, was rushed in for an emergency C-section.
She was told that Baby A would be born first, but that wasn’t what happened.
After the birth, she found herself in a mind-boggling situation when she noticed something wasn’t right.
Azayla, who had been the larger twin throughout her pregnancy, was suddenly the smaller of the two – and she was being told this was Delilah!
Despite the mix-up, Saffron and her partner decided not to switch the names back, even though they couldn’t be sure which twin was which anymore.
She said: “Twin A was the smaller twin, she was closest to the exit and we were told twin A was going to be coming out first regardless.
“When they pulled the babies out they just flashed me a quick little look at them over the screen and then Delilah was swept off to NICU.”
Saffron added: “Through the whole pregnancy Azayla was my bigger baby so I was given her and I thought ‘oh my god she’s tiny like how small is Delilah gonna be?’
“Delilah is going to be half the size of her and I was panicking because I thought she was going to be in the NICU for ages.
“But when they wheeled Delilah in my room six hours later she was humongous.”
Amanda Price-Davey, the Director of Midwifery at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, explained how the confusion came about.
She said: “What happened with Saffron during her caesarean section delivery isn’t unusual.
“During pregnancy we would refer to the baby who was nearest the cervix at the bottom of the womb, as twin one and the other baby twin two.
“We have to identify them in this way so that can accurately track their development on scans and don’t mix them up.
“When babies are born by caesarean section, when the babies’ exit is through the lower abdomen, the surgical team may often reach twin two first.
“After birth, whoever arrives in the world first, is referred to as twin one.”
Despite her initial frustration, Saffron and her partner soon realised that the mix up may have been fate.
She said: “Me and my partner looked at them and we said we’re not going to swap them back because she is an Azayla through and through and she is a Delilah.
“You look at them and they just look like their names and I think even if they come out the right way around I probably would have switched them.”
Turns out the universe has a funny way of making sure everything falls into the right place.