It's a choice no parent ever expects to have to make: keep the daughter you've been raising as your own for the past four years, or give the little girl up and reclaim your biological child who was switched with her at birth?
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Two South African families are facing precisely this heartbreaking dilemma after it was discovered their daughters had been mistakenly switched at the hospital after their births in 2010.
The case is causing a legal nightmare because one of the mothers wants to reclaim her biological daughter, while the other is refusing to swap the girls.
The error was only discovered last year when one of the mothers (neither of whom can be named) separated from her partner and had to provide a DNA test as part of her child support claim. Shockingly, the test results showed that not only was the girl not the man's daughter, but she also had no biological link to her mother.
Both mothers gave birth at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on the same day in 2010. Since the mistake was discovered in December, the two women have been attending joint counselling sessions arranged by the hospital, and have met their biological daughters.
Henk Strydom, one of the women's lawyers, told The Guardian his client was finding it difficult raising a child she now knows is not her daughter.
"She conveyed to me that it was traumatic. You can see it's not easy for her - she has to care for a child that is not hers, on her own, while her child is with someone else," Mr Strydom said.
"It's a tragedy. She wants the baby back but it seems the other mother is reluctant. It's four years later - you can understand she doesn't want to give up her baby."
The case has reached the High Court in Pretoria, and the Centre for Child Law has been given the task of investigating what is in the best interests of the children involved.
Both sets of parents, as well as anybody who has a "significant relationship" with the girls, will be interviewed as part of the process.
Both families are of Zulu background so Zulu cultural traditions and customary law will be taken into account.
A lawyer with the centre Karabo Ngidi said biology was an important factor in the case, but "not the only one".
Mr Strydom says he has no idea what decision the court will make.
"Your guess is as good as mine what the court may decide," he told The Guardian. "It's a travesty. How do you rectify it after four years? The longer you wait, the more traumatic it will be.
"But whatever happens, someone won't be happy."
Clinical psychologist Bruce Laing told the Times of South Africa that the long-term effects of a baby swap could be "profound", "terrifying" and "incredibly traumatising".
"Some resentment towards a child that is not yours might occur. The parents might always be thinking 'What if?'" he said.
