The Cork hospital where two new-born babies were mixed up on Wednesday has offered DNA testing to both sets of parents to reassure them that they now have the right infants.
One of the mothers, Ms Teresa McGrath, has accepted the offer of the test, to be carried out on Monday, although she said she was already satisfied that the baby she now had was her son Marcus.
An inquiry into the incident at St Finbarr's Hospital is continuing, but a spokeswoman said the likely cause was human error.
Staff on duty at the time are being interviewed. As well as trying to establish how the mistake happened, the hospital hopes to learn lessons to prevent it happening again.
The spokeswoman said the mix- up only came to light when one mother noticed the wrong date on a baby tag and asked a nurse if it should be changed.
Born within a few hours of each other on Tuesday, but either side of midnight, the babies have different birthdays. Following further checks by the nurse, the mix-up was discovered. The babies were returned to their rightful mothers after a day-long separation.
Speaking on RTÉ's Pat Kenny Show yesterday, Ms McGrath said it was "hours" before the confusion was finally resolved. While the mothers waited for clarification, she added, both babies started crying "and we didn't know which to pick up".
She admitted to having "niggling doubts" on Wednesday when the baby given to her appeared to have more hair - Marcus has none - than the one she remembered from the night before. However, she put this down to tiredness and the effects of an epidural "and I was afraid if I said it to anyone else they'd think I was cracked".
When the mistake was finally discovered, she was "gutted". Such an error was "not acceptable" for a hospital.
Ms McGrath added that she was taking up the offer of the DNA test. The second mother has asked not to be identified.
