Mother-To-Be Flees As Social Workers Warn Her They Will Take Her Baby Away At Birth

Daily Mail ^ | 20th November 2007 | PAUL SIMS

[DogByte6RER]

Mother-to-be flees as social workers warn her they will take her baby away at birth

By PAUL SIMS

20th November 2007

A mother-to-be has fled her home after social workers threatened to take her baby within minutes of the birth.

Fran Lyon, 22, hopes a new local authority will take a different approach.

She insists that the mental health problems she had as a teenager - she started self-harming at 15 and has been treated at psychiatric hospitals for borderline personality disorder - are now behind her and there is no evidence she will harm her child.

Miss Lyon moved out of Hexham after receiving a copy of her "birth plan" from social services at Northumberland County Council.

It says she will be given a maximum of 15 minutes with her baby - who she has already named Molly - before she is taken into care.

She is now in the Birmingham Yardley constituency of Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who has taken up her case and is campaigning to overturn the decision.

Miss Lyon said she had been hounded out of her home by a "barbaric" decision and felt she had no choice but to move if she is to have any chance of keeping her baby.

She added: "It is a sad indictment of a local authority in the way they have dealt with an expectant mother who has tried to co-operate with some of the most extreme measures imaginable."

Miss Lyon said social workers fear she is likely to develop Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. The controversial condition is said to lead mothers to seek attention by harming their child or claiming it is ill.

"I have been told that I am not even to breastfeed my child in case I try to poison her," she said.

"As far as I am concerned, the birth plan is abusive and I will just not stand for it. It would leave Molly isolated from anybody who loves her from the first few minutes of her life. It is barbaric and it deprives her of a basic right."

She hopes Birmingham City Council will review the case, but admitted: "I don't know what's going to happen. It's a waiting game at the moment."

Miss Lyon became involved with social services in July after a domestic incident involving her former partner.

At a subsequent meeting, she revealed her history of mental health problems and was told they would be taking action to remove her child once she is born in January.

Munchausen's - first identified by Sir Roy Meadow during the 1970s - has been at the heart of a series of miscarriages of justice.

Sir Roy was responsible for evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of Angela Cannings and Sally Clark for murdering their children. Mrs Clark died earlier this year.

Miss Lyon has appealed for a place in a mother and baby unit so she can look after her child under supervision.

Northumberland County Council said last night: "Where a child or unborn baby is subject to a child protection plan and they move to another local authority area, responsibility would normally pass to the new authority.

"A transfer conference is arranged as soon as possible and the family and their support are usually invited to attend. The existing plan is discussed, but the new authority makes its own decisions about how to proceed.

"Northumberland County Council would make sure the new authority has all the relevant information it needs to make informed decisions."

Mr Hemming is chairman of the Justice for Families organisation and believes councils are now taking more babies to meet Government adoption targets.

He said of Miss Lyon's case: "What could be more traumatic than for a mother to have her baby taken away at birth? It's monstrous.

"That, in itself, can cause mental health problems which are then used by social services against the mother as a reason not to return the baby. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"There has been a massive increase in younger babies being taken into care before there is even any evidence of harm."

The MP, married with four children, made headlines in 2005 when he fathered a love child after a six-year affair with his personal assistant.

[ValerieTexas]

the proof is in the pudding

[higgmeister]

People need to flag this sort of headline with a Brit label.

My ancestors are from the British Isles back ten generations but what is common in Socialist Great Brittan doesn't have the same scandal factor that it would in the USA.

[maine-iac7]

What did she do to her neck? Well, apparently nothing. She's got a trache tube. You could have just posted that info without getting all indignant. Talk about being quick to judge.

Too funny - YOU are the one who judged that, with that scarf, she was obviously hiding something - may I remind you of your post?

The scarf in post 2 looked a little odd to me (just seemed a bit out of place style-wise). Compare the view in post 3. There is some kind of blue band/thing that the scarf is covering up. What did she do to her neck? .

You so judge this young woman on open forum, world wide..

So I point out to you the real reason for the scarf (and other false snap judgments)(in my post # 53) by quoting from a former article thusly: "since the age of 11 she has suffered from angioedema (swelling of the skin) and for the past two years has been fitted with a permanent tracheostomy tube to help her breathe." -

and you accuse ME of judging?

Keep those boots polished

[maine-iac7]

.....caused by self-poisoning?

remarkable. Truly remarkable - and frightening.

First, you folk accuse the young woman of obviously trying to hide some self-inflicted wound under 'that scarf' and then when I present you with the fact that ""since the age of 11 she has suffered from angioedema (swelling of the skin) and for the past two years has been fitted with a permanent tracheostomy tube to help her breathe." -

you then go on to suggest THAT was the result of a self-inflicted action.

At least this young woman is not prejudging and/or making slanderous remarks about others on the world-wide web...

[r9etb]

with absolutely no evidence that this mother has ever harmed a child or will.

Well, see, that's a false statement -- a product of your personal biases, as opposed to an attempt to actually address the article rationally.

Unfortunately, there is evidence that she may harm the child, because she's already had a problem with harming herself. The story doesn't say outright, but I'm guessing the girl suffers from Munchausen Syndrome.

And the problem with that is that she may move on to Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome -- instead of harming herself, the mother might harm the child.

You can presume all you want -- you have no stake other than yapping rights. But if you're going to yap, at least try to figure out whether the article is telling you the whole story. It's clearly not, and what it does say is enough to suggest the social workers are more than mere grasping bureaucrats.

[r9etb]

It is naivete or socialist mindset?

Let's see: you change what I said, and then insult me for what you made it out to be. THAT, sister, is a real example of a "socialist mindset."

[maine-iac7]

This is the battle you choose to fight? Are you with the ACLU?

So far off the mark it would be laughable, were judging another person on open forum in the world-wide web not such a egregious action.

FYI = Before I became a retired old great-granny, I had an organization named "Families For Freedom" - we headed off a lot of this nanny-state cr*p in my state...we even changed my state from one that was jailing parents and taking away their kids for the "crime" of - gasp - home schooling.

Now, my state is one of the best and freest in the nation for home schoolers -

We also defeated a proposed law that would have allowed the state to send out a worker to "ALL homes that had a child age 0 to 18" (yes, it said "0 to 18" = to cover pregnant women and capitalized "ALL', to mean each and every house that had children) - and their job would be to observe and ascertain the relationship between the parent and the children. They were to observe what the home environment was, dirty laundry, dishes, etc...what even was in the refrigerator - i.e., proper food for the children, etc - and the job qualifications for the super snooper? "At least a high school graduate."

Insanity? I say yes.

Another little clause in their proposal was to force parents "ALL" parents to take their children to a doctor of the states choosing for examination...their rationale? "We find that often doctors fail to detect disease in well children?" (Some of you might have been as amused as I was at their squirming in their seats up on the stage at the bills hearing what I asked them to explain to me, as I obviously was unable to understand, how ANY doctor detects "disease in a well child" = They also got guffaws from the audience when they answered another of my questions of the 8 lined up there in their pontificating stance: "The state has worked out one formula that fits for how ALL children will be raised, how a parent will interact with their children." (I threw in an aside: "I raised 5 children. Each one was so different I used different 'formulas' for each personality. NOW you tell me there's one handy formula to apply to all!")

But then I asked: "Just out of curiosity, would all of you up there who have written and are pushing this bill, that have children, raise your hand?"

After some more squirming, one gal's hand went up tentatively and she said: "I take care of my little brother."

Well, we fought these nanny-staters down for years, all the way to Washington - we had a good ally there - Ronald Reagan - who knew the smell of Socialism/Communism.

I smell it again.

[MrB]

Wait a minute - I’m confused. She NAMED her “fetus” already?

I thought it wasn’t a baby or a human until “the parasite” was separated from its “host” body...

[do I really need a /s?]

[maine-iac7]

The story doesn't say outright, but I'm guessing the girl suffers from Munchausen Syndrome.

And the problem with that is that she may move on to Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome -- instead of harming herself, the mother might harm the child.

You can presume all you want -- you have no stake other than yapping rights

Truly mind boggling.

YOU can presume and make a judgment on this young woman and deem a new born baby should be snatched from her mother at birth, on YOUR evaluation of a newspaper article? "She may move on..."

On the judging criteria of a few of you posters here, no one would be safe - each and everyone of us could be found to = in the future "may" do thus and so - talk about open-ended condemnation. The state would truly reign supreme as the owners of our children - as the printed words I have seen, in these nanny-state child protection bills that call the children "The States greatest resource" 0 and the parents reduced to 'care givers' - i.e., the parents duty is to feed and clothe - all other rights/decisions belong to the state.

The stench of Socialism/Communism that we fought down so hard 20-30 years ago - is back.

[swain_forkbeard]

Irrelevant.

[maine-iac7]

Keep those Jackboots polished, now. If Hillary gets elected, you can pull them on and become one of her enforcers

[maine-iac7]

BUMP

[r9etb]

Keep those Jackboots polished, now. If Hillary gets elected, you can pull them on and become one of her enforcers.

OOOooooohhhh, you really showed me!

That pretty much tells me everything I need to know about your mental prowess.

[Scotswife]

“Mental illness is not a crime.”

hmmm...I haven’t seen anyone claim mental ilness is a crime. This is an issue of safety of a defenseless baby.

Last month in our local area 2 children were killed by their mentally ill mothers within a span of one week, and so this has been debated since then in our area.
In one case, the father knew his son was in danger and did his best to work with the social services system to try and get custody - but they didn’t listen to him.

That’s the trouble with social services - when a child dies, it is easy to look back and say “why didn’t anyone intervene before an innocent child is tortured to death?”

But when they do intervene - they are cruel intrusive communists.

This woman must have had a strange history for social services to plan such drastic action.

But...state to state, county to county, each division of DSS is only as good as the leadership involved, and it is difficult to know when they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing.

[DogByte6RER]

I attempted to do just that. The news story title was too long though and I thought it would be inappropriate to cut or change the title. In other postings for a story from the U.K., I usually include something like (Brits) or (U.K.) in the title if the story headline doesn’t reference the U.K.

[William Terrell]

And any one or more of these can be manifest in anyone at any period in his life. Many of these are so fuzzy as to require definition themselves.

What you call a personality disorder is simply an attitude or an orientation toward life. Some with such a condition never recover, some do with help and some recover on their own.

In my experience, blanket statements about human beings are rash and often ill advised.

[Valpal1]

Good for you and great story. Thank you for fighting off socialism for another generation!

[maine-iac7]

In my experience, blanket statements about human beings are rash and often ill advised.

I wonder if I can get that all onto a bumper sticker -

[William Terrell]

Like the cat.

[ValerieTexas]

By her own account, she was raped by an acquaintance while working as a volunteer in a charity shop (at what age? When she was 10? 14? 19?) and her behaviour became increasingly self-destructive. In addition to her difficulties with eating, she began self-harming by cutting her arms.

Her difficulties in eating are related to her self-destructive behavior? The writer is not clear in cause or sequence, but a lot of incriminating questions are unasked and unanswered here.

To complicate matters further, Lyon says that since the age of 11 she has suffered from angioedema (swelling of the skin) and for the past two years has been fitted with a permanent tracheostomy tube to help her breathe.

To complicate what matters? Her self-harming? If that behavior follows Munchausen's patterns then it is very likely it also includes self-poisoning.

At 15, Lyon says she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and admitted to the Cassel Hospital in Richmond, south London, where she spent a year as an in-patient, followed by nine months as an out-patient. The diagnosis was finally removed when she was 18.

She says the diagnosis was removed? Was it maybe revised? Does she have a new mental diagnosis (such as Munchausen's) that has caused her to remain under the eye of social services?