Swapped at birth: A Romani mother at the heart of a national scandal

and a quick look into how racist propaganda works

Romani Sevda Mihailova hounded by reporter as she’s returning home from a walk with the baby | Picture taken from this news report

In early December 2022, our daughter had just turned two months old. She was becoming more alert and playful. Every time she saw our faces, she melted into a huge, happy smile.

It was surreal for us, having a newborn, to watch the scandal that hit national news in December 2022.

The swapped babies

A woman, who we know little about except that she’s white and middle-class, gave birth with a C-section on September 13th, 2022 in one of Bulgaria’s most popular maternity hospitals Sheynovo. Several days later, she returned home with a daughter.

As the weeks flew by, she noticed that her baby didn’t look like her older child or anyone else in the family - she had darker skin. And then one day, as she was sorting through hospital documents, she checked the two bracelets.

Immediately after birth, two conjoined plastic bracelets with identical numbers are broken apart …