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City-level estimates; country centres are used where a town cannot be located. Geography: GeoNames and Natural Earth.
| Mother / Alias ↕ | Quick summary ↕ | Outcome ↕ | Jurisdiction ↕ | Year ↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Mort | Social workers and police took Elizabeth's newborn daughter from home for five days after a hospital opiate test picked up poppy seeds from an everything bagel. | Baby Returned Returned after five days | New Castle, PA, United States | 2010 |
| Tiffany Langwell | Hospital staff called Riverside County CPS when Tiffany left hospital against advice the day she gave birth; her baby was taken the next day and returned a week later after clean drug tests. | Baby Returned Returned after a week | Riverside, CA, United States | 2014 |
| Irvine Mum | North Ayrshire social workers took a mother's son three hours after a caesarean; a sheriff later found the social worker 'disliked' her and the evidence was plainly wrong. | Returned After Court Action Returned after seven months | Irvine, SCT, United Kingdom | 2015 |
| Hawke's Bay Mother (Son) | Police and Oranga Tamariki tried to uplift a 19-year-old Māori mother's seven-day-old son at Hawke's Bay Hospital under a without-notice order; midwives were locked out, but the uplift was stopped. | Baby Returned Uplift stopped; she kept her son | Hastings, HKB, New Zealand | 2019 |
| Melissa April | Melissa never held her first two babies: both were apprehended at birth under birth alerts; with Sanctum 1.5's support she kept her third. | Placed With Kin First two daughters with her sister; she kept her third baby | Saskatoon, SK, Canada | 2019 |
| Rebecca Hernandez | Alabama DHR took Rebecca's healthy newborn son four hours after birth because of a positive opiate test, which turned out to be poppy seed bread. | Baby Returned Reunited after the test was shown to be a false positive | Huntsville, AL, United States | 2020 |
| Heather Smith | An Ohio mother says she could not take her newborn home because the hospital mixed her up with another patient who tested positive for meth and fentanyl; the baby's own tests were clean. | Foster Care | Zanesville, OH, United States | 2021 |
| Grace And Michael Smith | St. Luke's staff mistook Grace's prescribed ADHD medication for methamphetamine, took her newborn son to the NICU and barred the parents; a month-long investigation found no abuse. | Baby Returned Investigation found no abuse | PA, United States | 2022 |
| Chanetto Rivers | New York's ACS separated Chanetto from her newborn son for his first week over a cannabis test taken without consent, when cannabis was legal; the city settled. | Returned After Court Action Reunited by a judge; city paid $75,000 plus fees | Bronx, NY, United States | 2023 |
| Jessie (Leeds) | After four children were taken into care, Jessie's fifth baby Freddie was removed at birth under an interim care order; she turned her life around and won him back. | Returned After Court Action | Leeds, ENG, United Kingdom | 2023 |
| Kimberly Smart | A Mitchells Plain mother says social workers forged her signature to sign her premature twins out of Mowbray Maternity Hospital. | Foster Care | Mitchells Plain, South Africa | 2023 |
| Sheshatshiu Innu Mother (Daughter) | An Innu mother was told to find someone to take her newborn daughter and go to a 90-day treatment program; she asked for the family program where she could keep her baby. | Foster Care | Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, Canada | 2023 |
| Sheshatshiu Innu Mother (Son) | An Innu mother told an inquiry that while a nurse fed her newborn son she was sent outside for a cigarette, and when she came back he had been taken. | Foster Care | Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, Canada | 2023 |
| Emma | A first-time South Australian mother says DCP took her baby the morning after a difficult birth, without ever telling her during pregnancy it had concerns. | Foster Care Strict supervised visits; working to regain guardianship | SA, Australia | 2024 |
| Cree Mother At Hsc Women's Hospital | Hospital social workers seized a Cree mother's newborn at Winnipeg's HSC Women's Hospital within three days, though her aunt and First Nation were arranging housing and kinship care. | Foster Care | Winnipeg, MB, Canada | 2025 |
| Kristen Clark-Hassell | Georgia's DFCS took Kristen's baby 'off my breast in the hallway' after a court hearing, relying on drug tests from a lab later accused of up to 30% inaccurate results. | Foster Care | Savannah, GA, United States | 2025 |
| Nita P. | A Wisconsin couple travelling through Illinois had their newborn son taken by DCFS hours after birth over a drug claim that tests later showed was untrue. | Foster Care Still fighting to get him back | IL, United States | 2026 |
| Sandy Bay Ojibway Mother | A First Nations mother says CFS took her healthy newborn from her room at Portage District General Hospital with no paperwork or explanation. | Case Ongoing | Portage La Prairie, MB, Canada | 2026 |