Toddlers switched at birth to stay with family

Two South African toddlers who were accidentally swapped on the day they were born should stay with the families who raised them and not be returned to their biological parents, a court-appointed expert has ruled.

The two children, a boy and a girl who are now aged four, were born on the same day in 2010 in a Johannesburg hospital but ended up being taken home and raised by different parents after nurses mixed up their identities.

The families were unaware of the mistake until one of the mothers underwent tests when her ex-husband refused to pay child maintenance because he believed he was not the father.