text: Intermediate 
  Two mothers in South Africa have found out that they are raising each others daughters after they were mistakenly switched at birth in a hospital in 2010.
  But, while one of the women wants to correct the error and get her biological child back, the other is refusing to give back the girl she has raised as her own.
  Henk Strydom, a lawyer for one of the mothers, described the swap as a travesty and tragedy that is unlikely to have a happy ending.
  Both mothers gave birth at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on the same day in 2010. Nobody suspected anything, Strydom said.
  But, in 2013, one of the mothers, who is 33 and unemployed, sued her ex-partner for maintenance for her daughter. Strydom said: The man denied he was the father. A DNA test was done and it was found it was not his baby and not her baby. She was devastated. She didnt know what to do.
  Eventually, she met the other mother and, since December 2013, they have been attending joint counselling sessions, arranged by the hospital. Here they have met their biological daughters
  Strydom said of his client: She said there are resemblances to herself. She told me that it was traumatic. You can see its 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.
  The woman became unhappy with the process and asked the childrens court to give her custody of her biological child, but the other mother refused.
  Its a tragedy. She wants the baby back, but its four years later: you can understand that the other mother doesnt want to give up her baby, Strydom said.
  The High Court in Pretoria has asked the University of Pretorias Centre for Child Law to investigate what will now be in the best interests of the children.
  Strydom added: I dont know what the court will decide. Your guess is as good as mine. But, whatever happens, someone wont be happy.
  He said, at this point, he and his client do not want to sue the hospital or government health department, which is helping with the case and providing counselling.
  The Centre for Child Law will interview the mothers and fathers, as well as any other person with a significant relationship with either of the girls. The children and mothers will have clinical assessments and may be seen by a psychologist.
  Karabo Ngidi, a lawyer with the centre, said: Whats going to happen must be in the best interests of the children. Biology is an important aspect but not the only one. 
  The families are of Zulu ethnicity and so Zulu tradition, culture and customary law will be a factor, she added. It is also still possible the ex- partner of the mother who is taking legal action could be the biological father of the girl who was switched.
  It is not the first child-swap case in South Africa. In 1995, two mothers were awarded damages after their sons, born in 1989, were accidentally switched at the Johannesburg hospital where they were born.
  In 2009, in Oregon in the United States, Dee Ann Angell and Kay Rene Reed discovered that they had been mistakenly mixed up at birth in 1953 when a nurse brought them back from bathing.
  In 2013, in Japan, a 60-year-old man swapped at birth from his rich parents to a poor family was given compensation. He grew up on welfare and became a truck driver, whereas his biological brothers and sisters  and the boy brought up in his place  attended private secondary schools and universities.
  Bruce Laing, a clinical psychologist in Johannesburg, said the long-term effects of a baby swap could be profound, terrifying and incredibly traumatizing. He told The Times of South Africa: The parents might always be thinking What if?