Times News
Mum Claire Robson was astonished to be told baby was a boy
8:52am Thursday 2nd September 2010
A NORTH-EAST couple have spoken of their shock after being told that their baby girl is actually a baby boy.
Five weeks after giving birth to a girl, mum Claire Robson was astonished when doctors told her she had had a boy after all.
Ms Robson, 21, from Brandon, near Durham City, and her partner, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, 27, were thrilled when their first baby was born at Sunderland Royal Hospital, on May 26, by emergency Caesarean.
Born 11 weeks prematurely, the baby was immediately transferred to an incubator.
Ms Robson was told she had had a little girl and the couple named her Olivia. Checkout girl Ms Robson and Mr O’Shaughnessy, who is a baker, carried on buying pink baby cloths as Olivia recovered from the premature birth.
It was during a visit to the Wearside hospital that the couple were called in by a consultant and the news was broken to them that Olivia was, infact, a boy.
Ms Robson said: “I just burst into tears. It’s taken a bit of getting used to.
“From that point onwards everyone kept calling the baby a he. Because he was born so early he wasn’t fully developed – that’s why no one could tell.
“As he got a few weeks older it became apparent.”
The couple have quickly adjusted to having a son rather than a daughter and now Olivia has a new name – Dylan.
“I love Dylan just as much.
He’s the same baby,” said Ms Robson. The couple are now wondering what to do with a room filled with “baby girl”
cards sent by wellwishers.
Experts have pointed out that the genitals develop fairly late in pregnancy and when a baby is born very prematurely, it makes it more difficult to be absolutely certain about the sex.
In Dylan’s case, what made it even more difficult was that he was suffering from a genital abnormality known as hypospadias.
Affecting about one in 300 baby boys, according to the health information website Patient UK the condition seems to be getting more common.
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