Woman told her baby boy had died at birth – 42 years later, he emailed her

A young mother was told by nurses that her baby died at birth, only to receive an email from her son more than 40 years later.

Diane Sheehan, from New Zealand, was an unmarried 21-year-old when she had a baby in September 1976 at an Australian hospital.

Midwives almost immediately whisked her newborn away, however, without even letting her hold it or telling Diane the gender.

Her child, they insisted to Diane as she lay bleeding on the hospital trolley, was dead.

Diane recounted to MailOnline: ‘To everyone at the hospital, I was nothing short of a disgrace and my baby’s death just punishment for my terrible sin.’

But the discharge papers she was asked to sign were actually adoption papers – her baby boy was alive. She discovered the truth 42 years later when her son, Simon, emailed he