A mother was given the wrong baby in this Australian hospital. Understandably, she's furious.

A couple have spent 45 minutes bonding with the wrong baby in a terrible maternity ward mix-up.

A young family have been left reeling after finding out that 45 minutes they believed they were spending with their newborn son, were instead with the wrong baby. You simply cannot imagine the distress this must have caused.

The parents now say the mix-up has left them stunned and they are having difficulties bonding with their baby.

Samantha and Nick Stuhlener had their baby boy Levi at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in January.

Months later they are still shattered from what occurred.

It was those first precious hours together when it was realised something had gone wrong. A nurse entered the room and removed what they thought was their son. Shockingly they were informed that they had the wrong baby.

Their son had been left in the settling room – and it was another couple’s newborn they were bonding with.

Ms Stuhlener told 7News “I said what’s happened, what’s going on?”

“And she said, you didn’t have Levi, you had somebody else’s baby.”

The couple were told there had been a mistake with the identification IDs – with nurses failing to cross check the IDs and so they mistakenly brought Mr and Mrs Stuhlener someone else’s newborn son.
An incredibly emotional Ms Stuhlener said that while the hospital assures her Levi was not taken to another room – but remained in the settling room she has concerns that her baby may have been fed by another mother.

“I don’t know, was she with another mother?”

They say that the hospital have refused to give them an incident report.

The couple have been in contact with the other family who are just as devastated by the mistake. Both families still struggling to absorb how things went wrong and how they can deal with the fallout and move on in order to bond with their baby.

The CEO of St Vincent’s hospital, Ian Grisold, confirmed there had been a mix-up.

“It is extremely regrettable and staff and myself [are] guttered by the incident,” he said.

He assured the family that during the 45 minutes the babies in the wrong care neither was fed or changed.

“While both babies had correct identification name tags attached at all times and both babies remained in their correctly named cots at all times, the staff member did not disturb the parents and check their name bands,” Mr Grisold said.

“The second baby remained in the night nursery. When it was realised by staff that there was a baby in the incorrect room, the still sleeping baby was instantly removed from that room and returned to its parents.”

But the Stuhleners do not feel reassured by this statement.

“I don’t believe that,” Samantha Stuhlener said.

Incredibly the stuff ups continued with an apology letter sent to the wrong family again and gift vouchers that were meant to be for the family whose baby was mistakenly taken into Samantha’s room sent to Nick and Samantha.

Ian Grisold told 7 News that the hospital has improved procedures since the incident with two staff members now required to cross check both the mother and baby’s name tags when moving babies to and from the settling room.

For Samantha and Nick Stuhlener the incident has changed the course of the first few months of their lives with their new baby. They say they are having trouble bonding with Levi.

“It’s been really hard. There was not the same connection as I had with my first,” she said.

She says that Levi, now almost three months old, was ‘unsettled’ for the first several weeks of his life and would not breastfeeding.

The raw emotion of the whole experience is etched on this young mothers face. Her husband, Nick says all they want is answers.

“That’s all we’ve wanted, to actually see what’s written in the incident report and what actually happened. ”