'I always knew I was adopted. But years later, I found out I was swapped at birth.'

Dr Penny Mackieson vividly remembers the moment she was told the woman who she thought was her birth mother, wasn't her birth mother after all.

"It was heartbreaking. The DNA test showed we weren't related, despite the adoption papers saying she was my birth mother. Clearly I was misidentified as her baby, and someone else was misidentified as me," Penny told Noni Hazlehurst on SBS' Every Family Has a Secret.

"The woman didn't want to talk about it and didn't really want to talk with me after that. I wasn't in the picture anymore."

It all stemmed from a grave error made in the hospital when Penny was a newborn. She had been a victim of a baby swap.

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For as long as she can remember Penny has known she was adopted.

Her adoptive parents could not have biological children but had always wanted kids, so they decided to adopt. 

They knew very little about Penny's backstory, the only thing they told Penny was that her birth mum was young and still at school when she fell pregnant and wanted to continue her education over raising a child. 

"Over the years I did think a lot about who my parents might be. I often wondered if one or both of them were of some European ethnic origin, given I look quite Greek or Italian," she tells Mamamia. 

It was in her 20s that Penny decided to apply for her adoption records.

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As for what spurred that decision, Penny explains that after suffering the devastating miscarriage of twins, she felt like she was "falling into a big, black hole". 

"I didn't know who I was and I was grasping for a bit of stability. I felt I had to reach out and try and find my mother, to put myself back together."

After sourcing the records and reaching out, Penny was reunited with her birth mother - or at least who they believed to be her birth mother. The woman responded practically immediately, and Penny got to know her half-siblings and other biological maternal family members as well.

"I was very relieved that my mother didn't reject me. But I didn't really feel that I looked like her children or her. And I didn't really feel like I resembled them with personality or interests," Penny tells us. 

With this in mind, Penny was still quite curious about her paternal background. So she decided to do an Ancestry DNA test in 2016.

The results stumped her.

It confirmed Penny was 70 per cent Greek, and had zero English, Irish or Welsh ethnicity like her birth parents listed on the adoption records. She did another DNA test with a different provider, and realised the results were concrete. 

The birth mother she had just met and connected with couldn't possibly be her biological parent after all. It was an overwhelming discovery. By this time as well, Penny's adoptive parents had passed away.

"I knew the implications would be hard. She was kind of in denial when I told her, and just figured that the results weren't accurate. At the time I was studying and doing my PhD so I decided to leave it for the time being - I knew this whole situation would open more and more cans of worms."

Three years later, Penny plucked up the courage to ask this woman to do a DNA test. She did, and it was confirmed the two had no DNA connection between them. Not only was it difficult news for Penny, but for this woman as well, who thought she had finally united with her daughter. 

"Sadly it didn't end well at all. Soon afterwards I received a letter from her saying she needed to 'move on with her family'. It was the end of the relationship."

Penny contacted Adoption Information Services in Melbourne explaining she believed that she had been mis-identified and swapped with another newborn baby while at Queen Victoria Hospital in 1963. The department launched an urgent inquiry and within weeks Penny's claim was verified. DNA tests connected another female born on the same day as Penny to the woman she had believed to be her mum. 

"Fortunately a DNA test confirmed this other baby I was swapped with was related to who I thought my birth mother was. They gave permission to the Adoption Information Service for me to know that information and know they've been in touch with each other," says Penny. 

But for Penny, she was back at square one.

Dr Madonna Grehan is a medical historian and practising midwife. She explained to Penny that maternity hospitals were chaotic in the 1960s and their systems weren't foolproof, particularly when it came to tags fitted improperly to a baby's wrist while in the nurseries. Ultimately, Penny's baby swap situation was likely an error rather than a deliberate switch.

"The department was horrified this had happened. Within six weeks they had identified the person who they thought to be my mother. She was Greek."

It turns out that Penny's birth mother was a Greek woman who had married in Australia, had three children and returned to Greece in the 1970s. 

Through the department, Penny reached out to this woman, who is now in her 80s and living in Greece. She doesn't deny she had a child and put it up for adoption, but was unwilling to communicate with Penny - she didn't want her other children to know about Penny's existence.

Dr Penny Mackieson and Noni Hazlehurst on Every Family Has a Secret. Image: SBS.

It was via the show Every Family Has a Secret that Penny was able to finally get closure about her family story.

Recently she received a call from Adoption Information Services and was told there had finally been contact with a Greek man who the department believes is Penny's brother. 

He and his two other siblings said they were open to meeting and speaking with Penny, and doing a DNA test to confirm their relations. The results were a match.

The news also coincided with Penny's 60th birthday and a planned trip to Greece this year to celebrate the milestone birthday. It became the perfect opportunity for Penny to finally meet her biological family.

"My birth mother came around to the idea of meeting me. It was my half-siblings who told her they knew everything, and she had been really worried about them rejecting her. By the time I got to Greece on that trip she was ready to embrace me, so that was very lucky. Being able to meet my mum, my siblings, an aunty and uncle - it was fabulous," she tells Mamamia. 

"The aunt told me she asked my mother whether she had thought of me since I was born. She said she had thought about me every day. I didn't think that would mean so much, but it did. I bawled my eyes out when I had my first hug."

Ultimately Penny has a unique perspective on the adoption industry as a whole.

She was a social worker for a number of years, primarily working in the children and family services sector involved in intercountry adoption cases. She has been a passionate author, commentator and advocate for the rights of adoptees.

Describing her experience as "a pretty big emotional roller coaster", Penny for some time said she had anger towards the hospital for what they had done in their clerical error. 

Now she feels good to have corrected the public record. She also hopes her story reminds people that DNA testing offers adoptees a chance at "reuniting with natural parents or knowing more about their background".

"Even as a social worker and someone who's worked in adoption and understands the system, I needed a lot of support to work my way through this. It wasn't easy. So I want other adoptees to find that same support and understanding if they wish to uncover their story," she explains.

For Penny, she says she feels "born again", and is keen to get back to Greece, start learning the language and make up for lost time with her biological family.

"I feel so relieved - there isn't a hole in my heart anymore. It's been filled with love."

To see Dr Penny's full story, you can see it featured on SBS' Every Family Has a Secret. You can also pre-order Dr Penny's book Greek, Actually here.

Feature Image: Supplied. 

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