On New Year’s Eve 1998, two mothers, Gisella and Marinella, arrived at the same hospital. Both were in labour and, later that evening, welcomed daughters, born 15 minutes apart.
During the New Year’s celebrations at the Sicilian hospital where the babies were born, a mistake was made. The newborns, Caterina Alagna and Melissa Fodera were switched at birth.
Although both mothers actually did question the hospital about why the outfit was different from the ones they brought for them, the hospital staff assured them it was just a mistake. It wasn’t until three years later that the mothers realised what had happened.
The mothers were faced with an absolutely devastating decision, one that no parent wants to make. One that causes pain no matter what. Do you swap the girls back? Or raise a child that isn’t biologically yours?
The mothers decided on Plan C instead.
A preschool encounter
For three years, Caterina was raised by Gisella Fodera. Meanwhile, Melissa was raised by Marinella Alagna. The mothers had no idea their daughters may not be their own.
However, as luck would have it, both girls attended preschool together. One day when Marinella was picking up her daughter, Melissa, she noticed another little girl, Caterina, looked a lot like her other two daughters.
She then saw Caterina’s mother at the preschool and recognised her from the maternity ward.
That was when something clicked.
Mothers discover their babies were switched at birthÂ
The mothers got to talking and agreed to take a DNA test to see if the hospital had made a mistake. It took 15 days for the tests to confirm that, yes, the babies were switched at birth.
Caterina was the biological daughter of Marinella Alagna.
Melissa was the biological daughter of Gisella Fodera.
The mothers were faced with the hardest decision of their lives. As any mother would understand, giving up a daughter you’ve raised for three years would be impossible. But knowing your real daughter is being raised by someone else would also be hard.
Neither family liked the idea of child swapping.
 I challenge anyone to raise a daughter for three years then give her up over a simple mistake,” Gisella said in an interview.
The experts suggested swapping the girls back and separating them for six months so they could get used to their new families. After three heartbreaking months of this plan, both mothers knew they couldn’t do it.
We two mothers cried on the phone to each other each day and after three months decided we couldn’t resist, and we met and promised never to separate,” Marinella recalled.
Plan C: Raise the girls as sisters
The mothers came up with a new plan. They would merge their families together and let the girls grow up as sisters.
And this is exactly what they did. The families became one, with four parents each, eight grandparents and siblings. They spent their days together, had joint birthdays, and spent weekends together too.
While the girls technically did swap back, it didn’t impact them at all and was the best option for the families too as neither had to give up a child. They simply gained another daughter.
“At first, loving Melissa, my biological daughter, felt like betraying the daughter I had raised, but today Melissa and I truly feel like mother and daughter,” Gisella said.
The girls didn’t know anything about being switched at birth until they were eight years old. They can’t recall ever not being in each other’s lives and have happy memories of being raised by two loving families. The only concern was dealing with their legal names.
It seemed like a game and today neither of us have any memory of life before we were three. Growing up I had Marinella as a second mother, as she still is,” Melissa said.
Melissa and Caterina are now 25 years old. The girls still consider themselves sisters and went to college together. They have since shared their story with author Mauro Caporiccio, who turned it into a book, “Sisters Forever” and a documentary series.
“The girls effectively grew up with four parents and eight grandparents, and the experiment worked,” Mauro Caporiccio said. “Today they are more like twins than sisters and there is a kind of love which binds the two families.”
To find out your child isn’t your own would be absolutely heartbreaking but we think these mothers did the best thing they could for their girls. What would you do if you found out your child was switched at birth?
