e the MSBP sufferer can label as likely to have made the suggestion. Munchausen sufferers, as with most attention seekers, are always plausible and convincing.
It’s been estimated that as many as one in five cot deaths is really a murder resulting from a mother with Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy. The MSBP mother (who becomes a serial killer) knows that fear [by the police or investigating authorities] of accusing the wrong person is usually enough to evade accountability and prosecution. No-one is going to challenge a grieving mother, and the father may be in ignorance of what has really happened and thus steadfastly supporting his partner. Evidence is minimal and the cause of death is put down as cot death (also known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS), choking, breathing difficulties or some other plausible reason. However, MSBP is an ongoing condition and it is the repeated deaths from ambiguous or unidentified causes which arouse suspicion. There’s a saying in social services: one [death] is cot death, two is suspicious, three is Munchausen. But who is going to take the risk of wrongly accusing a bereaved mother or a caring nurse?
Including the wholly discredited notion of “one [death] is cot death, two is suspicious, three is Munchausen”, this just drips contempt for the silly immature mothers who clutter up hospitals and clinics with concern about their children’s health. It doesn’t take much to imagine how this goes down with social workers on the lookout for unsuitable parents.
It’s not the misdiagnosis of MSpB that’s the problem: it’s the definition of the illness itself.
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