When the new mom holds the baby for the first time, the nurse bursts in with the terrible news

A New Jersey woman claims the hospital gave her the wrong baby to breastfeed after her cesarean last year.

Montvale resident Melissa Richman recently filed a new lawsuit alleging she spent more than 20 minutes breastfeeding a newborn baby that was given to her by a nurse around 4:30 a.m. on September 30.

“It was the middle of the night, I had just had a very difficult 3-hour cesarean. I was extremely sick from all the drugs,” she began.

“I wasn’t in my right mind and didn’t think to check it out,” the 39-year-old mother, who already has two older children, noted in an interview with local media sources.

Richman says the nurse suddenly returned to her room and literally ripped the child from her breast before giving her a new baby to breastfeed. But Melissa was already out of milk because the other child was starving, attorney Rosemarie Arnold noted.

This meant Richman’s own crying, hungry daughter was forced to drink formula from a bottle. The sip feed also meant the baby didn’t receive its mother’s colostrum, the special milk mothers secrete in the first few days after birth that improves digestion and immune function and helps leach out systemic toxins.

The lawsuit against Valley Hospital of Ridgewood alleges that the hospital’s major mistake deprived Scarlett of the nutrient-dense colostrum that “rightfully belonged to her.”

Arnold also noted that the 4:30 a.m. breastfeed was actually the second time Melissa had breastfed after giving birth to her daughter, so she was now concerned that she might have breastfed the wrong baby the first time too.

If this was the case, her own daughter may not have eaten since she was born 14 hours ago.

“That’s just a terrible thing for a mother to do,” Arnold remarked.

Then, in another slap in the face, Melissa was also forced to take three separate blood tests so the hospital could confirm she didn’t have a disease that could be passed on to the other couple’s child.

The lawsuit further alleges that the hospital staff paid far less attention to the health of Melissa and her baby.

Noticing the mix-up, the nurse immediately pressed Scarlett onto Melissa’s chest without first wiping the other baby’s saliva, meaning Scarlett may have been exposed to possible transmission of bacteria and/or other health issues.

Melissa and her family’s attorney pointed out that Scarlett now suffers from acid reflux, rashes and allergies.

In an interview with the media, Melissa commented that the whole mix-up left the Richmans wondering for weeks if they really brought home the right baby.

“I was denied the opportunity to really bond with my daughter for the first few weeks until we got the DNA results back that reassured us that she was ours,” Melissa explained, wiping tears from her eyes.

Note that Melissa and her husband, David Richman, are filing a lawsuit in state court alleging malpractice on the part of the hospital, seeking unspecified damages.

The hospital declined to comment, citing concerns about the ongoing litigation.