Baby Dylan was born a girl. Or at least, that’s what the doctors told his parents. They named ‘her’ Olivia, bought lots of pink clothes, registered her as female. Then when she was 5 weeks old, an apologetic consultant called in her parents and told her there had been a mistake and ‘Olivia’ was actually a boy…
Mum Claire Robson, 21, was somewhat surprised to learn that her under-developed 1lb 10oz daughter – still in an incubator after being born 11 weeks prematurely – was a son.
“I just burst into tears. It’s taken a bit of getting used to. But I love Dylan just as much. He’s the same baby.”
At a scan during her pregnancy she’d been told she was expecting a girl; six days later she underwent an emergency Caesarean delivery at Sunderland Royal Hospital.
As the child was born, the new mum asked: “Is it a girl?” Claire said: “The doctor replied, ‘Yes’. From that point onwards everyone kept calling the baby a she. Because Dylan was born so early he wasn’t fully developed – that’s why no one could tell.
“As he got a few weeks older it became apparent. The consultant called us in, told us to sit down and said, ‘Your baby’s actually a boy, not a girl’. We were stunned.”
The mistake was compounded by the baby suffering from a genital abnormality called hypospadias, which is where the opening of the urethra isn’t in the tip, but a bit further down. Dylan will need operations on his penis to correct it but his parents have been assured all will be fine.
They now have a new birth certificate naming Dylan.
Urology expert Dr Geoff Hackett confirmed: “The genitals develop later during pregnancy. When a baby is as small as this one and born so prematurely, it makes it more difficult to be certain.”