"You are not the father" isn't just a notorious quote from scandalous day time television.
A lack of relation between baby and dad can be visually obvious, and unwitting medical professionals are sometimes caught in the middle of family disputes regarding who a newborn's biological father is.
Redditor u/user_7061 got doctors and nurses to share some paternity scandals when they asked, "Have you ever witnessed a couple have a child that was obviously not the fathers? What happened?"
20. Yeah, fun times...
"I worked the L&D floor of a big hospital although not as medical professional. We had two dads come to blows when the mom was there in labor. She had no idea which was the dad and wouldn't till she pushed that kid out. One 'dad' was white (with red hair - REALLY white), one was Nigerian. Neither knew about the other till they both came rushing into the area to be with their baby momma. Fun times."
19. People can be awful...
"This very white couple came in with obvious relationship tensions and long story short the baby came out somewhat darker than white if you get me. Well the couple not having the means to support a child yet put the baby up for adoption and very quickly got a response. The next day a couple flew 9 hours to get their baby. They arrived and somehow missed the memo that this baby was black and were absolutely furious when they saw it. They refused it and then flew back home. Later on another couple adopted the baby."
18. Glad it worked out
"Obligatory not a doctor, but my family has a story sort of like this.
My grandparents were separated and my grandma started dating another man. She got pregnant and the other guy bolted. My grandparents got back together and my uncle had my grandfather's last name. My grandparents eventually divorced and my grandfather didn't really raise any of his kids. My grandma got remarried and my grandpa stepped up and was the dad they all needed."
17. Is this a soap opera?
"Small town family drama. My uncle is obviously the father to a girl from my highschool. Close family friend, he had been fighting with my aunt around the time she was conceived, she looks just like him. My cousin is a month younger than the girl. I don't know if my aunt knows, but she's a bitch so I dont think anyone cared to tell her if she was that oblivious."
16. It's not the nurses fault!
"My friend from nursing school used to work in L&D. She said that after one of the patients told her boyfriend he wasn't the dad, he was furious and stormed out of the room. My friend had tried to help and talk to him but he ended up punching her in the stomach. She said security was immediately on him in seconds."
15. Oh no, not the best man...
"Not me but a family friend of mine was at the hospital when it was time for his wife ( let me repeat WIFE of just over 4 years) to have their baby. When the baby was finally delivered... Well lets just say he was not too happy. It ended up being his best man in his weddings son. It was very awkward for everyone. But for what ever reason he stayed with his wife who cheated on him and raised the son who obviously wasnt his"
14. He probably came back to get stitches on his hand
"My girlfriend's mom worked in the OBGYN section of the hospital and she said two Caucasian people came in and when the baby came out he/she was Hispanic and the father freaked out and punched and shattered a decorative picture on the wall and left and never came back."
13. She'll figure it out eventually
"Yeah, the daughter is blonde and blue eyed, looks an awfully lot like the guy her mom dated right before 'dad' who is Mexican. It is clear but mom refuses to tell her. With dna testing so common I'm just waiting for the bomb to drop."
12. A multitasking papa
Giphy
"A nurse at the hospital I work at said when she was in nursing school there was a guy whose wife and girlfriend were giving birth on opposite ends of the same floor of the hospital. He was going back and forth between each room during the entire process."
11. The blood tells all
"I had delivered a baby and the bilirubin (a byproduct of blood breakdown) was high. I was explaining to the mom that it may be due to the fact that mom was O+ and baby was B+. The dad said 'but my blood type is A'... cue uncomfortable doctor. For the baby to have B type blood when the mom is O dad either needs to be B or AB, oops. The mom just said 'it's okay it's okay, we'll talk later' and I took my signal to back out of the room as fast as possible."
10. Infidelity led to tragedy
"A hospital where I was a Med student had a baby born with Hydrops, which is where a baby gets two bad copies of a red blood cell gene, one from each parent. Baby died shortly after birth. Parents came in for genetic counselling and testing revealed the woman's husband did not carry the alpha thalassaemia gene. The couple asked what was the chance another baby of theirs would have this condition the doctors were honest and told them 'zero percent'. They left it at that."
9. Daddy roulette
"Had a mum to be who had narrowed the options for baby daddy down to her top three. She was having a c-section and didn't understand why all three potential dads couldn't come into theatre. She then asked if we could rotate them through, and maybe she'd let the one that was there when baby came out be the 'real daddy'. Took all my professionalism to smile politely."
8. The most scandalous town
Giphy
"Not a Doctor, but my wife grew up in a really small town, but wasnt born there. When she got her first crush on a boy and told her best friend, the friend was like 'Did you talk to your Mom yet?'
Apparently, adultery was so wide spread in this area, it was common practice for girls to talk to their Mom about crushes and who the crushes parents were so they didn't end up dating their half sibling...."
7. The fall out was probably bad
"A nurse friend of mine told me about helping with a vasectomy when the Doctor saw that the patient, a married father of two children was clearly infertile and would have been all his life. Due to the man taking Valium before the local anisthetic the Dr made the guy come back for a follow up where he had to explain the mans medical condition to him. No idea what the fall out was."
6. Awkward...
"I'm a midwife. I once had a woman come to my clinic unannounced (she wasn't my patient but I'm NHS so saw her anyway) She had a man with her, she knew she was about 3 months pregnant but hadn't come for any antenatal care.
I asked if she'd had sex the night before (she'd come in because she'd had a little bleeding) I looked at the partner as mum said yes and he said 'nothing to do with me - I'm just the baby daddy' Turns out she had a new boyfriend at home, this was just the guy she'd been with 3 months before.
I popped her up on the table to examine her and straight away had to tell her that she was actually about 5 months along but I would arrange a scan to confirm. The dude just got up and walked out.
Turns out there was a third guy 5 months ago."
5. He did some detective work
"A friend of mine had been hearing rumors that his wife was cheating on him. He refused to believe them until he found out one day that there was trait that is passed from parents to children. (I wanna say cleft chin but it's not important.) Anyways he went and got a DNA test done as he and his wife did not have the trait and it turns out it wasn't his kid, they tested their other two kids and he was only the father of the middle child The first and Third child were from two different guys."
4. A family drama unfolding in real time
"When I was a student nurse there was this one couple, mother was Asian and husband was White. The husband had a brother (African American, he's adopted from what I remember). The mother had been in labor for around 12 hours and they were very excited to see their baby.
However, when the baby came out then came the rough part. He was a normal healthy half African American boy, around 3kg. I just looked at the baby then looked at the father and watched his face go from joy to puzzlement to horror in around 10 seconds.
I didn't get to see much of them for the next 2 hours but I was there when the mother was brought to her room. Her husband and his brother were there as well and she was talking to them. From what I saw she was trying to console her husband and his brother was trying to hug him."3. It's so awkward for everyone
"Our NICU does not allow paternity testing to be done inpatient and some of our babies stay with us for 3-6 months depending on their gestation. We've had a few looooong and awkward waits for babies to get discharged before we could find out who the dads are. The two most recent cases were babies born at 23 and 25 week gestations both kids with 3 possible dads. None of the potential dads stayed involved in the 3+ month hospital stay waiting to find out if they're the father. It's so awkward for the staff."
2. Who do you think you're fooling?
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I worked in adoptions. A couple showed up wanting to discuss adoption. She was so obviously pregnant.
The catcher, she and he both insisted that they had never had sex of any kind.
I don't know what happened because they never came back."
1. This genetics surprise
"My husband is a surgical technician. Years ago he helped deliver a baby via emergency c- section. The baby was black and born to two very white parents. The dad freaked out and left the hospital with the mom in tears. The doctor convinced him to get a paternity test and he did end up being the father. Genetics is weird."