After Raising Each Other’s Kids Due To IVF Mix-Up, Two Couples Blended Their Families

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Hoping to welcome another child, Daphna Cardinale and her husband Alexander, went to the California Center for Reproductive Health for in vitro fertilization. In September 2019, Daphna gave birth to their second child. Later, however, Daphna and Alexander discovered something unimaginable: They were not biologically related to their baby.

Due to an IVF mix-up, their embryo was implanted into another woman. A DNA test later confirmed that they had been raising another couple’s child.

Daphna and Alexander noticed that their baby looked nothing like them.

After welcoming their daughter May, Daphna and Alexander thought it was a bit strange that she had black hair, per the New York Times Magazine. They tried to quell their suspicions, but for Alexander, the concerns lingered. He attempted to use humor to cope, joking that there could’ve been a mix-up at the fertility clinic. Eventually, Daphna ordered a DNA testing kit.

The DNA test revealed that they were not May's biological parents.

By the time they found out the truth, the parents felt attached to May. They were scared of losing her, but they also wanted to help her find her biological parents. “We didn’t want to be those people who were so desperate for a baby that we were going to deprive someone of theirs,” Daphna told the New York Times Magazine. “It felt like a kidnapping.”

At the same time, after welcoming and caring for May, she felt like their daughter. “I carried this child. I birthed her. She felt so familiar to me that it didn’t even occur to me that she couldn’t be ours,” Daphna previously told People.

Later, they discovered that May's biological parents lived 10 minutes away.

Annie, who is Latina, and her husband, who is Asian American, had gone to the same fertility clinic and had welcomed a daughter named Zoë. Unlike Annie and her husband,  Zoë had light hair and blue eyes. DNA tests later confirmed that Zoë was Daphna and Alexander’s daughter. Meanwhile, Daphna and Alexander had been raising Annie and her husband’s baby.

Faced with a difficult decision, the couples eventually agreed to swap their children. Doing so was challenging. For one thing, both families already had other children and they had to explain the swap to them. After the swap, Daphna struggled with lingering feelings that May needed her.

Annie texted Daphna one day.

“We can definitely visit each and check how our girls are doing. It’s so hard. I don’t know how to let go,” Annie texted Daphna during the difficult transition, per the New York Times Magazine.

Daphna had an idea: “What if we don’t ‘let go’? What if we just have 2 babies? We share them. We have to find a way to have both babies. Spend a lot of time together. Raise these girls together.” Luckily, Annie agreed. “Yes, let’s raise them together,” she wrote back.

Since then, they've blended their families.

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A post shared by Alexander Cardinale (@xandermusic)

On November 26, 2024, Daphna and Alexander shared the recent New York Times Magazine article about their IVF mix-up via Instagram. When the magazine shared the article on the platform, Alexander provided an update for those who are curious about their family dynamic.

“We blended the two families and the girls are like sisters,” he commented on the post. May and Zoë are now 5 years old. They went to the same preschool and continue to celebrate holidays together.

“It’s a blessing that we all are on the same page,” Alexander previously told People. “We’ve spent every holiday together since then. We’ve spent every birthday together since then — and we’ve just kind of blended the families.”