MAMA DVD Borrow for free, a must for all parents (A bit long, sorry)

[Bunglie]

As most of you so kindly lit a candle on Christmas Eve, remembering all the children and parents seperated at Christmas for whatever the reason, most of you will have realised that I was falsely accused by Prof. Roy Meadow of having Munchausens Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP. This Professor is coming before the GMC later this month and many thousands of children have been removed from loving homes and adopted. Sadly some of them were removed within minutes of being born.
I could go on, and on. In my own case this man diagnosed me without seeing me, or seeing or speaking to any doctor who had ever treated me or read any of my medical notes. Yet he said I had MSbP and was a danger to my 2 children who were adopted. It has since been prooved that a disease he said was too rare for me to have, I do in fact have and has placed me in a wheelchair.
Since the sucessful appeal of Angela Cannings, Trupti Patel and Sally Clarke many of the Criminal cases that he gave expert evidence at have had their judgments overturned. But these were Criminal cases, I was cleared and found innocent by a criminal court but a Civil Court of the Family Division is held in secret. Parents are imposed with gagging orders so that they can not speak out and my 2 children who were adopted I am not permitted to talk about or tell anyone anything about the case. Just writing this means I have broken the law.

The situation is far worse for many parents and through the support of Mumsnet many of us have been able to support one another but more importantly the support from 'normal' parents not falsely accused has meant so much to us all.

I have managed to get some DVD's of a film by the Oscar Nominated Amy Sommer and Nonny De La Pena, called MAMA after the website of the same name (Mothers Against Munchausens Allegations).

Having checked the copywrite etc they are very happy for me to send a copy out to anyone who want's to see it and the only condition is that you make no charge for people to see the film.

If you would like to borrow a copy of the film I have 3-4 copies. I will send them out on a first come basis. All you have to do is CAT Janh your address. You will be sent the film in a Jiffy bag, so if you could open it carefully you can then use the same Jiffy bag to return the film to Janh when you have watched it. Inside will also be a sticky address label with Janh's address on for you to stick over the address to you. All I ask from you is to pay for the return postage (64p I think?).

I know I have a personal interest in this subject but I feel that it is the duty of every parent to realise what has been happening secretly in this country for more than 15 years. This film is very fair, it gives both sides and also has the last known interview with Meadow's on which has to be seen to be believed.

I know I have asked a lot of you already but if you would like to see this film then please CAT Janh.

I am happy to write the film synopsis if you would like to read it...

I am sorry that this has been so long.
Love to all and a happy 2005.
Bunglie

oh bugger!

bumping this to see what you want me to do about posting this on

Sorry, galaxy, not with it today!

I have emailed next on list - will let you know.

(Still haven't had a chance to watch mine again yet.)

I thought that you may like to know that I got an email from Amy Sommer yesterday, she is sending out my order but I sent her a link to this thread so that she could read what you all thought. I have sent her an email and corrected her that the mums on mumsnet, with the exception of a very few of us (6-7 I think) have never been accused of MSbP and that the comments came from ordinary mums.
Her email is as follows;

"It is an honor to get feedback such as that below from those who have been through the hell of MSbP. Nonny has uncovered some truly horrifying information. As mothers and filmmakers we too are horrified. Sadly, there are many types of child abuse which occur in a variety of circumstances and settings - there is really no cause to make up a new form of it especially when the 'diagnosis' is based on such sloppy science. It seems to me that those who are supposed to be in charge of protecting our children from abuse are in fact creating many new victims of it - only these children are abused by a system that is more concerned with finding blame than good science.

It is comforting to know that the film is doing some good.The DVDs will be in the post tomorrow - it is a holiday here today. Thank you."

Message for janH, Hi i've now got the dvd, will watch it tonight and get it ready to come back to you on friday (hopefully).
thankyou,

Watched the film this afternoon. Very moving. A bit frightening too. I was listening to what they were saying about the type of things to look for in a parent who might be doing this to their child and it sounded to me that most of the things they came up with were pretty much how I would expect the parent of a child with acute or long-term illness to behave. What is so strange about being attentive, not wanting to let them out of your sight, finding out as much as you can about their illness or condition etc. Also, if your child is being seen regularly by the same department its only natural that you will get to know the staff and form friendships.

Amynnixmum, I think that you have summed it up very well. I can not see that the behaviour was anything other than that of a concerned person. But then I am always worried that I am being biased.
May I ask what you thought of Meadows? I personally thought that in parts he came across very confident and with a degree of authority which made all he said sound quite plausable. But then I can not be objective relating to him which is why I wonder how others thought he came across.

I thought he came across as condescending and odd.

Apart from the bit where he tried to cover the microphone, can you explain why? Was it because he said he felt that there was no point in speakng to the parents, or the accused, as they tell lies? I did think that a bit odd.

Or was it his whole manner?

Sorry lots of questions but I am just interested as to what others think of him as I have been on the receiving end of him, and he is not what I would call a polite gentleman, hence I feel I am biased in my views.

In the interview part of the DVD I think he did seem very knowledgable and confident. If I didn't know that much of his testimony had been discredited I must admit I would have been quite convinced by his arguements. However, in the film they showed clips where he reacted badly to certain lines of questioning and I think that that said it all really. When simply asked about his theories he was eloquent and convincing but when questioned about evidence that undermined his theories he became evasive, wouldn't answer and told them to turn off the camera.

For me, it was his whole manner. I just took an instant dislike to him and I wasn't even really aware of the extent of the damage he'd done. I'd only heard of the Sally Clarke case before I started following your threads.

Stopping bloodflow to grandchildrens' legs? Sick.

I agree with you Galaxy. I think some of the things that he did to his 'poor' Grandson is child abuse. He even fed them salt. I wonder if the man is sane....but does he have his own syndrome, he certainly exhibits a lot of the characteristics.
Had it been any one else then I am sure they would have been accused of child abuse, but you just don't do what he did IMO. Thank you.

I was horrified that he admitted to that - that for me was evidence that he is unstable.

Amynnixmum, If you did not know anything about him or cases etc, do you think you would have been taken in by him?

Have just found this thread. Had no idea of your situation Bunglie . You have all my sympathy.

I would be interested to watch a copy of the DVD if they are still in circulation. Will email you my address JanH.

No Problem Rudy Duy, if you scroll down a bit you will find Janh's email address, and I think she finds it easier if you email her.
The DVD's will be available for as long as people want to see them.
Thank you for wanting to see it.

Have emailed JanH.

Will be very interested to watch it, particularly as I have only a brief amount of knowledge on the cases that have been publicised and know very little of Roy Meadows.

I have to say, rather shamefully, that I have previously avoided the MSbP threads as I have found the whole subject too distressing. However, that is a cowardly and unsupportive attitude and it is all to easy for me to ignore it when not faced with it. I appreciate that for you and others like you Bunglie you would love to be able to pretend it didn't exist, I'm sure. Watching the DVD will be my first step in correcting my ignorance and denial.

rudydudy. That's the reason I borrowed the dvd. I was virtually ignorant of the enormity of the wronged familes affected by this man's testimonies.

I have lurked on these threads but not felt able to post.

The dvd is shocking, very disturbing but compelling watching and a must for all parents. I told dh about some of the stories and he was in tears...he couldn't bring himself to watch it though.

Thank you.

The last thing I want to do is upset any one. I am very happy that you would like to watch it, but please if you find it too distressing or anything then I fully understand if you choose not to watch it all.

I personally found the 'complete' interview with Roy Meadow interesting and that is on the 'extra's' part of the DVD where they show you updates on how all the families are doing. When I first watched it I nearly missed it as I did not realise that it was there.

If you do not have a DVD player most copmputers play DVD's so you can still watch it if you would like.

Thank you again for making the time and effort to watch this, it means a lot to me and to the other mums in my situation, of which I am sad to say runs into the thousands!

If the only way I can help educate people as to what has been happening is to ask you to watch this DVD, then I am very happy when you agree. I hope that one day it will not be necessary and that people will realise what has been happening for the last 15+ years, and also speak out where we can not, as we have been gagged by the courts.

You are doing a lot just by agreeing to watch this and I sincerely thank you.
Bunglie (and the other mums)XX

Bunglie,
Its really hard to say because I did have prior knowledge. Some of the stuff he said was fairly extreme - e.g the parents always lie so there's no point in talking to them. I have been taught to be critical of theories and literature so I certainly would have questioned some of his techniques but overall I think I would have found him quite comvincing. As for the stuff about him feeding that child salt and squeezing his grandsons leg, I quite agree that that sounds like child abuse to me too but he didn't admit to them in the interview did he. I don't think the salt incident was even mentioned and he brushed over the question about using his grandson with a very vague and ambiguous answer about using the experiences of his family in his work.
Also hard to say whether i would have warmed to him as I already feel quite angry towards him for what he has done to so may families. Have come across many strange and somewhat condescending lecturers over the years so that in itself would not have put me off. Sorry bunglie, not much help I know.

Bunglie...I never saw the extras - I'll have to go back on the list to watch it again!

Amynnixmum, your comments are fair and very helpful to me. Thank you for your honesty. I really mean that and I am not just saying it as it is important to me that I realise how he comes across and what people really think of this whole MSbP Syndrome. I appreciate your honesty thank you.

Please do Galaxy. It has the complete interview with Meadows and is about 20 minutes long. I think it is there that he mentions the salt???

I think it is in the 'updates' bit but can't remember from memory. If you can't find it after pressing 'menu' let me know and I will look.

As I recall there are 3 sections.

1. Updates on all those who took part.
2. Complete interview with Meadow
3. Web page details.

IHTH. Bunglie.

Just watched it all again with your questions in mind Bunglie and I still feel that during most of the interview he comes across as plausible and convincing. However, a couple of the extracts that are included in the film itself show him to be evasive or refusing to answer when the questions are more probing or when to answer them would undermine his arguements. I would be very interested to see the interview in full so I could hear the interviewers questions and view his responses in that context. At no time in the film or the interview did I see him address the question about him administering any salt, he talked in general about the case and the other doctor read the rest from a court transcript. I did notice that he at no point did he actually deny that he had tied the string on his grandsons leg - he merely said most of the allegations were false. Thank God no one listens to him any more.

Thank you Amynnixmum, I wish I could remember where I was that he had stated that he had tried to get his grandson to eat salt? Does anyone else remember this disclosure or is it me mixing things up?
I think your assesment of him was very fair. As I said before I am biased in my opinion but I did think that he came across as quite convincing in parts.
Thank you for watching it.
Love Bunglie XX