Moms Who Have Murdered Their Own Kids

"I was looking for a way to get attention to myself, and maybe if I could just do something drastic enough, that someone would see that I needed help"-mother who tried to suffocate her child (1)

Why would any mother try to suffocate her child? Is it not true that: "A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path?" --Agatha Christie.

Mothers, in most cases, are seen as the essential "caregivers" in many societies/ cultures. A novel or textbook, screenplay or script, Hallmark card or holiday, could celebrate "motherhood," and what it entails, at one point in time. The bond of mother and child is shown to be "unbreakable" and we hear stories of mother's lifting cars to save pinned children, essentially sacrificing their lives in order for their children's survival. Growing up, we might hear that being a mother is an "under-appreciated job; and "all the work mothers do whether paid or unpaid - has social and economic values"(1). Mothers can essentially be the shapers of the future society: able to raise children, and possibly even hold down a job, while still being able to cook and clean. Author Ellen Bravo stated, "Only Clark Kent had to be Superman, but every mother has to be Superwoman" (2).

Just recently (about 26 some years ago) physicians began to disagree with Miss Christie's belief that mothers are extraordinary defenders of children. Dr. Roy Meadow coined the term, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP), in 1977, to describe an unusual and bizarre behavior exhibited by parents of extremely "sick" children after observing a mother who had tampered with her child's urine samples (3). P...

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10)CNN online Homepage, Article on Kathleen Bush case by Susan Candiotti

http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/20/florida.operation.01/

11)Self Help Magazine, Paper on MSBP by Marc D. Feldman, M.D., entitled, "Parenthood Betrayed The Dilemma of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy"

http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/parenting/hsmun.html

12)ABC news online, News OnLine. Article on MSBP.

http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/munchausen1119_ptl/index.html

13)MSBP Survivor Network Site

http://www.mbpsnetwork.com/

14)PediatricBulletin, Article on MSBP on Pediatric Bulletin Site

http://home.coqui.net/myrna/munch.htm

15)Allen Cowling Investigations Homepage, Site on False Allegations. Paper on MSBP.

http://www.allencowling.com/munch.htm

16)Stranger Box site, Post-Trauma Page. Section on MSBP.

http://strangerbox.topcities.com/disorders.html