“Doctors, Have You Ever Witnessed A Couple Have A Child That Was Obviously Not The Father's?” (50 Answers)

I had the opposite happen, sort of.

My wife and I are both brown skinned dark haired half-Mexicans and our moms are both 100% white blondes with blue and green eyes.

So we sort of knew it was a c**p shoot with our baby, but the nurse who was assisting with delivery had no idea. At one point she gets sort of nervous and calls for help and another I guess more senior nurse came in and nodded and came over to talk to me.

I thought there was something *wrong* with the baby as she comes over and stumbles through some questions; so I was the father and no one else was coming, etc. Then finally she awkwardly asks if either of us happened to be blonde growing up.

I said yeah I was and both the baby's grandparents are blonde as they come and this wave of relief went over her and she brought me over to see this blonde as hell crowning baby head.

It's funny because he looks just like me if you applied a gringo Instagram filter. We often get awkward questions about his heritage and my wife always hits them with "Yeah we're not sure if he's mine."

It's always funny to see people nod for a moment and then go "Wait what?".

Not a doctor/nurse, but my (ex)girlfriend delivered a baby while I was in the delivery room, and turns out it wasn't mine.

She was 16, I was 15. All along I was under the impression that this kid was mine, and time to be an adult. Took all the classes, read the books, worked every night/weekend to save whatever money I could as a 15 year old. I finally get the call she is in labor, so I have somebody rush me to the ER. Luckily for her, it wasn't a long labor, only about 6 hours, but their was a complication. The baby came out with the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck. Doctor assured us it was going to be OK, but the nurses were prepping for things to go south.

Baby comes out, its a light shade of purple, and the nurses immediately take the baby and put on the smallest mask you have ever saw, to help it get oxygen I guess. I was too panicked to ask a lot of questions. They state they need to keep the baby on watch overnight, so I stay in the room with the ex.

The next evening, baby is back in the room with us, and all seems well. The Ex is asleep, and the same nurse from the night before comes into the room, and beckons me out. She states that at risk of her losing her job, she has to break some harsh news to me, that kid is not mine. She stated that while at this stage it wasn't obvious, over the next few weeks it would become clear this kid was mixed, and since both of us were white, it was a high probability that it wasn't mine.

Queue a mixed bag of emotions, and me promptly waking the ex to get a little clarification. Come to find out, she knew the chances, and was just hoping it was mine because it worked better for her. Apparently her father was old school racist and she didn't want to have to deal with that. I left the hospital to collect my thoughts, and a few weeks later was served with child support papers. One DNA test and about 6 weeks later, I am 0.0% that kids father.

Where ever that nurse is now, I hope your life is amazing. I understand that you were not supposed to get involved in the personal side of things, and keep it professional, but you saved me a lot of additional headache.

My fiance's father is almost certainly not his biological dad. His mom was just a genuinely terrible human being who didnt even try to hide the fact she was cheating. But his dad loved him from the second he was born and when the mom decided 4 years later she just didnt want the kid anymore she just gave him to his "dad" and rode off. J's dad ended up getting married and they tried for kids before finding out his s***m count was too low to ever father children (they ended up adopting many years later). He sat my fiance down when my fiance was 13 and told him the truth and that if J wanted to test they would but it was up to him. J cried and told him he just wanted him to be his dad and that was the end of that.

I had a vasectomy. While chatting with the doctor, he told me about another patient. This guy had three kids and came in for the snip-snip because he and his wife decided they were done having children.

The doc opened up his sack and found nothing to snip. This guy was born without the ability to have any children. The poor doctor had to explain to him what happened.

Imagine finding that out that way.

Probably no one will see this. But my cousin met a girl in rehab. Started dating, she relapsed but was pregnant. Had the child, obviously wasn't his. Signed that it was anyways. 7 years later he hasn't had a drink since then and has had sole custody for 6 years. Loves her and is the best dad. She changed his life.

Both my sons came out with barrel chests, red hair, and huge hands and feet. So they look exactly like me. My wife looks at them all loopy on d***s and says ' Thats not my kid!' The whole room went silent for a minute and then we bust out laughing. My wife has a wicked sense of humor.

I used to work with a guy whose wife was pregnant. Near time for delivery every one at our place of business had a big party with gifts, money, etc.

So big day comes, water breaks, they get in car to go to hospital. She breaks the news on the way there it’s not his, the kid is another race, and if he could just drop her off at the hospital and then leave, that would be great.

He took a few days off work, found a new apartment, moved out, filed divorce etc. he called in to work and told someone what happened, news spread pretty fast. All congratulations cards, etc were cleaned up and thrown away. Every one was very sensitive to his pain.

Except, somehow, I don’t know how, I did not get the news.

So on his first day back, I walked into the office he shared with 6-7 other guys and said “Hey hey, Daddio, how’s fatherhood so far? Getting any sleep? Got some pictures? Let’s see the little tike!”

He slowly lifted his head to look at me with a painful look. The room was dead silent. One of his workmates stood up, grabbed my arm and walked me out of the room, shushing me. “What happened, “ I asked, “Did it die? What’s the problem?”

When he told me I about died myself. I still feel bad for the dude and it’s been 30 years.

Similar, but I don't know where else to put it because it just makes me laugh. My aunt is a nurse in the maternity ward. She had a couple come in where they were both very black. Lady has baby and it is white AF. Like, totally pale, no trace of any pigment. They put the baby on her mom and the mom starts yelling about how this isn't her baby and they stole her baby (in all fairness, you can be very confused during/after delivery, it wasn't stupidity), just sobbing and freaking out and the father is just sitting there and looks very confused becasue even he's realizing that even if she did cheat, there is no way the baby would be THAT white. The doctor and nurses are trying to assure her that this is her baby and the skin usually darkens later.

Come to find out, when he called his mom, she pointed out that they have a second cousin who is albino and maybe baby got that gene. Turns out that's what happened- baby was albino.

Worked in the army hospital on ft Lewis. A woman came in for belly pain and we found out and told her she was 10 weeks pregnant. The husband at the bedside started laughing, grabbed his coat and left the room explaining to us that he had been in Afghanistan until 3 weeks prior. He looked back and her and just said “well that’s that Brittany.”

I always liked how classily he left her while she just silently stared off into space.

Not quite what you’re asking but in the same vein. I’m a nurse in a level 4 neonatal ICU. We service the sickest of the sick from our state and the surrounding states, so we see it all.

We had a baby that was sick as snot. Lo and behold we discovered it’s blood/spinal fluid, etc was septic with herpes. In most babies, we avoid this by treating the herpes while the Mom is pregnant.

In this case the mom didn’t even know she was a carrier. So where did it come from? This is the awkward and sickening moment when everyone in the room realized where the herpes came from. Turns out, the father had an affair and contracted the virus from his lover.

So yeah, while this woman’s baby is on the verge of death, she finds out her husband has been cheating on her and his cheatin a*s is the reason their baby is sick.

This happened to my brother. He broke up with his super-crazy girlfriend, and a couple months later, she started calling him, telling him she was pregnant. He was very skeptical that the baby was his (we all were), because after they broke up, she basically slept with everyone who would. So, we waited for months, so she could have the baby and my brother could get the paternity test. He was in the delivery room and I was waiting right outside to support him. So, after the baby gets cleaned up from delivery, he comes walking out with this weird look on his face and shows me the baby who looks more like his clone than his son. My brother died when his son was 10 and every time I see my nephew, it's a little shock, because I swear I'm looking at my bro. It makes me miss him a little less, though and my nephew is more like a son to me.

I’m not a nurse, my professor was an L&D nurse and she once saw a man running between two delivery rooms. Both women he had impregnated went into labor and gave birth the same day. Supposedly the one he was married to was angry because the woman he cheated with was impregnated after the wife but had her kid ten minutes before the wife.

L&D is apparently the most drama filled section of hospitals. My SO is planning to be a nurse and he’s going to work in L&D/neonatal this year and I’m excited to hear any dramatic stories.

I know a girl who was pregnant with her boyfriend's best friend's baby. He found out there was a possibility about a week before she gave birth. I went up to see her once he was born and he looked just like the friend, there was no question. I broke the news to her boyfriend and he was absolutely devastated.

His parents were heartbroken and super pissed. They had bought the girl everything she needed, including a $500 car seat/stroller set. She refused to give anything back. She started up a relationship with the friend immediately after having their child, and they're still together a decade later. But the the kicker for me has always been that the boyfriend and best friend were next door neighbors.

She moved into his house after coming home from the hospital. So her exboyfriend and his family had to see them basically everyday raising this child that they had believed to be his for the entire pregnancy. I can't even imagine.

Edit: Yes, they did a DNA test right after he was born. The baby was the friend's.

Obligatory: Not a nurse or doctor. My brother told me this story about a man he used to work with.

Brother's work friend is from eastern european country and came to USA many, many moons ago and started his family here. One of his sons meets a nice girl, they plan to get married but life happens and then more life ends up coming out of them. Whole big family is excited about new baby, father-to-be is absolutely ecstatic, they have a small ceremony before baby is born, yada yada.

Delivery time comes and out pops this little boy who is about 50 shades darker than either parent and new dad absolutely loses his s**t. In his heartbroken rage, he accuses his new bride of cheating on him, disowns said child and rages right out of the delivery room, leaving new mom all alone with her mountain of shame.

This guy returns to his family and continues his hate filled rampage and exclaims to his family that his w***e of a wife had cheated on him because the baby looked nothing like him in skin tone. The family is shocked, never would have believed this sweet young thing would do that to their son, absolute shame and misery all around.

Well, sitting in a dark little corner of the room, little tiny grandma chirps up and has a story to tell.

Apparently, back in her glory days, during some war or another, she had a great summer with a french solider. A black french soldier. She got knocked up and he got sent home and back then you kept the baby and hoped your family didn't murder you before you could abandon it somewhere. She ended up meeting her husband shortly after getting knocked up and things just progressed as if it was his child and wouldn't you know, the little thing popped out white as snow and she breathed a sigh of relief because this was going to be the easiest lie to keep ever.

So this poor b*****d has been carrying around this super melanin gene his whole life and knocked up his wife and it decided to all come out on his sweet little boy who he now has to go crawling back and reclaim.

Thankfully, the whole family went with him to the hospital, old grandma had a picture of her old fella as proof and husband and wife were reunited.

Had a college buddy whose fiancee was pregnant. They were the "perfect couple," both had just over a year with great careers starting out, everything was butterflies and rainbows. Fast forward to the delivery room, they're in there and out comes a very black baby. He's quite the pale redhead, and she's a blonde/blue eyes Texas girl. He made sure everyone was ok, waited for her parents to arrive, and left without saying a word. He moved all his stuff out of the house while she was in the hospital, and cut off all communications with her, just walked out of their lives in the most stone-cold act I'd ever seen. They were together for nine years, and he just left cold turkey. She tried to contact him at his job a few times, but he quickly moved up the ladder and eventually got a job in another city. He told me once that he took solace in the fact that her family had already dropped about $10k in a wedding that never happened.

I worked labor and delivery. Had a very young mother come in, accompanied by her parents. She was just 12-13 and parents looked stuffy and kept telling her should've had an abortion, she was too young, etc. Her mother was silent the whole time but leaked tears for her constantly. While she labored, I received a call from a very young boy who said he was her boyfriend. His trembly voice explained that her father wouldn't come to the hospital. I explained that I couldn't give out information but he could talk to her afterward.I went in, told her he had called and she showed me a picture of him. He was white, straight red hair, pimply and tiny--the runt of the litter.
About an hour later, her phys ed teacher stopped by to check on her, which I thought was odd. We didn't get many teachers checking on students. He was as opposite of the boyfriend as he could get: tall, very muscular, beautiful smile, and rich, chocolate brown skin.
The girl's father accompanied her to the delivery room. Odd, but ok. The more she pushed, the louder she cried. In between, she kept say "sorry daddy"". Finally, out slid a very beautiful, chocolate brown baby boy. I thought her father was going to pass the F**k out on my delivery room floor. I did my usual "it's a boy!" And said nothing else. I handed him off to a nursery nurse and got dad a chair. The new mom said "I'm sorry daddy," over and over again. Her mom, now frowned up, came to see the baby, took one look, started asking God for forgiveness, and left. I sent her dad home a short bit later, admonishing him to react at home, not here. I set up a time for our counselor to meet with him before I left. After talking to new mom, she admitted her gym teacher had been giving her "special treatment". I explained s*x to her and she said she'd only kissed the bff, but had stayed after school to be with her gym teacher. I'm state mandated to report child abuse, so I did. Two weeks later, with her world shattered, her baby was given up for adoption. I wish her the best. Of note, this was 1989.

I worked as a lab tech before I became a nurse. We had a set of twins in the NICU that were super early and the mom was still in the OR getting sewed up from the caesarean. I was drawing Baby B’s blood when mom was wheeled over to Baby A’s isolette. She was crying and said, “Oh thank god you’re not black! I have been so worried the last 7 months.”

So newborn babies, especially when they’re born early, are very pink, almost red. So even if a baby *was* part-black, their skin isn’t necessarily dark yet. But looking at these babies, it was obvious they were going to be black. The shape of the face, the texture of the hair, and Baby B that I was working on had an intense Mongolian spot.

A few weeks later, my NICU nurse friend told me that the babies were now on a “no-info status” meaning security alert, can’t give anyone information about them, can’t refer to them by name, etc. She said there was a huge fight because the mom’s husband (white guy) obviously noticed that the babies were half black and that mom had cheated on him and got pregnant. The real dad (black guy) came in and didn’t realize the mom was even married.

Those poor babies ☹️.

I am a nurse working in labor and delivery.

Most of the time if the mom thinks the baby may not be her boyfriends/husbands they will just have their friend/sister/mom with them there for the delivery and have the dad come to the hospital/room after seeing the baby. No guarantees because babies can change a lot over a couple weeks. Many African American babies have very light skin when they are born and it gets darker.

I have a had a Pt's husband get upset about the baby being too light(they were both black) until his mom smacked him and told him that's what he looked like when he was born.

Recently I had something I thought was interesting happen. Girl comes in in labor with her boyfriend, sister and a friend. Boyfriend doesn't seem too engaged during the process but that's not uncommon. Baby is born and is fine, sister sends dad to get some stuff. Note here all people involved are Hispanic and only speak Spanish. My specific medical Spanish is pretty decent and I can get you through an epidural or delivery, most things that come up pretty well but I am not fluent. So as soon as the dad leaves the sister is like I have a question for you and then process to say something I can't understand at all, I try to clarify but I'm just not getting it, I offer to go get the translator. She's like no I dont want it to be official. She whips out her phone and through Google translate asks "how can we get a paternity test in the hospital?"
I then have to explain that we really don't do that but you can get one at CVS. They tell me that the baby doesn't look like the other child of this mom and this guy and that it might be someone else's but they wanna check before telling him. So I just apologize and tell them how they can get a DNA test at CVS and they are like $50.

This isn't the first time I've been asked about paternity testing, just had no idea how you say it in spanish.

Edit: Thank you to all the people telling me how to say paternity test in Spanish, I appreciate the effort and will try to remember it but I also have google translate. I just didn't recognize/understand the words at the time she was asking me which is why I offered to get a translator. Its not generally accepted for nurses to use their phones to translate at work.

Also yes you can get a DNA test at CVS, I believe someone in the comments has posted a link. You can also get a DNA test done at a clinic but it generally costs more. The first time the paternity test thing came up I asked my manager who said to refer them to cvs which is what I have heard other nurses do as well. Some hospitals used to offer paternity testing but many no longer due because it is not usually seen as medically necessary and as such usually isn't covered by Medicaid or insurance so the hospital ends up eating the cost. I am not saying that there are no hospitals that still do paternity testing just that it is not the case at any of the hospitals I have worked at in my area.

You don't know anyone else's life circumstances so it is best to reserve judgment about the choices they have made or you think they may have made because not every situation is cut and dry. Plenty of biological fathers leave and do not support their children, women are not all lying villains. Life is very gray, just treat people with respect and compassion.

My husband and I were visiting our friends who’d just had a baby (we are the godparents) and we were standing in the hallway talking to both sets of grandparents. Well, apparently the hospital has a rule that only 5 visitors may be present in the hallway, but the security guard had let all 6 of us in for some reason and we didn’t realize it. This nasty nurse comes up to us, notes that there are six of us, tells us someone will have to leave _immediately_, and then turns to my husband and says, “Oh, are you the daddy?” Without missing a beat, he says, “That’s what we’re all trying to figure out here.” She gets a look of horror on her face and backs away.

Oh man, I'm so late to this thread! I used to work in the newborn nursery at a hospital. We got the babies right from delivery, cleaned them up, footprinted them, checked vitals, etc. Dads usually came in with the newborns. This dad comes in with this baby. Dad is white, mom is white, baby is very obviously not white. The dad was very quiet standing next to this baby, watching us clean it up. He says quietly, "I don't think this is my baby." You could tell he was absolutely devastated. We advised him not to sign the birth certificate until he was sure. Not sure what happened after we sent the baby back out to mom, but I felt awful for the guy.