I Took My Baby's Life - ITV - 22.35PM

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Are you watching?

I am..

me too - I can't imagine how she got to the state where she would kill her boy

No, neither can I. Might have been uncontrollable urge via some kind of mental illness, triggered by events surrounding her previous relationship. People speak highly of her. Counting my blessings.

Where was the child when all this was going on? It's not clear

Not watching but it was on This Morning. She had a psychotic episode. Family tried I get her sectioned but failed. Emergency Dr saw her briefly and thought there was nothing wrong. Her brother took her and child to stay with him thinking they would be safe.

ah, her brother was minding him. This is very very sad

sole she thought she was saving him. Her sister mentioned a secret password. The lady thought if she could remember the password he would come back to life.

:( Oh no Passme

There is so much to learn about mental illness.

It was terrible to listen to earlier. I turned this over just now and am struck by how together an reasonable the family seem. No blame, no fury just deep sadness from everyone.

The family hope that this will raise awareness of mental health issues - stop people thinking it only affects certains types of people.

Why she didn't recieve the help she asked for. That takes so much courage! Surely that in itself should have been enough of a red flag.

What is so frightening is that it could have been any one of us.

Very sad. I grew up with a mentally ill mother, she was sectioned several times and we were removed due to concerns for our safety. It could've been me.

It makes me sad that there is so little compassion for mothers who are mentally ill, people really don't understand it at all.

We drive past the house regularly it's close to us. Was such a terrible shock and very sad.

I hope it does raise awareness and any mistakes made won't happen again?

zoo that really is the scary thing. Look at her family and the support she had. Her worries were fairly typical and she loved her child. You cannot control it and there is no 'type'.

Nothing will change until we stop treating mental illness as a weakness and something to be ashamed of

Prejudice and ignorance about mental illness is very prevelant. Mental illness is just that an illness. Not many would judge a person with asthma for example. It is nothing to be ashamed of but alas there are too many amateur psychiatrists too eager to laugh and/or shun.

I actually cried my eyes out at this programme - so sad that she reached such a state without getting the help she so desperately needed.

My heart breaks for her family who seemed to try and do what they could.

Mental health care in this country is in serious need of an overhaul :(

Such a sad story! I was literally in tears. Its such a sad situation all round. Poor poor Mel didnt recieve the help she really needed.yet there are many people who take advantage of the free mental health service and abuse it for extra benefits and drugs.i work on an acute mental health ward and believe me its not very often you get "genuine" cases through the ward doors anymore.A&E and community teams down this way are to so frigtened of what they could be blamed for if they arnt seen to be doing something for everyone!! Or to make a mistake,people only have to say 5magic words now and they are in and the real cases get pushed to the side just like Mel. Ok so the Dr said that the assesment team could take up to two hours.if the Dr thought she was ill and she left Dr should of called the police,once she was out in public they could of put her on a section 136 and had to take her to a place of safety i.e A&E or 136 suite at a psych unit,until the team could assess her. Shes been failed by a system that could work a system which has many grey areas a system that is being abused and a system that is needed but must be looked at and restructured. I so hope that Mel is recieveing all the help and care she needs,i have seen many people have a psychotic episode and its not nice to witness let alone actually go through. This can happen to anyone from any walk of life. I hope she will eventually that there is still reason to live.

Yes, it could be any one of us :( It is scary isn't it? Count your blessings. ( Poor Mother and baby. Makes me really too. Let's hope we learn from such tragic circumstances. WE HAVE TO

WE HAVE TO

I've just watched this on itv player through floods of tears. I feel so sorry for everyone involved - feel so sad for Christy - I hope he didn't suffer at all

I suppose the difficult thing with mental illness is that there is no way you can possibly know what someone is capable of doing. The sad thing is that it usually takes something tragic like this to happen before people take notice.

I was in A&E a few months ago and there were two people in the department who were (I assume) suffering with mental health issues. They both seemed pretty "normal", and one of them was actually asking to see a psychiatrist. He was wandering around the hospital corridors getting more and more irate that he could not be seen. To be perfectly frank, he was scaring me a bit, but there just didn't seem to be anything they could do, or anyone to help.

The other person was being seen by a psychiatrist, I think, but was desperate to leave. They kept asking her not to leave, but she was adamant. There was a big "argument" going on between her and the doctors and nurses, and I think eventually the police were called, which I can only assume would have been even more distressing for her.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I just feel that from these two incidences and the programme last night, that something really needs to change. I'm not saying that people with these episodes should be chained to a bed, but I would have thought there should be system for keeping them safe and secure in a hospital (especially if they have gone there voluntarily in need of help).

Jemba - I am absolutely appalled that you don't get many genuine cases. I cannot imagine why people would abuse the system like that.

I watched this and was heartbroken for her little boy, her family and Mel herself. She was totally failed by a system that should have supported her. But I'm interested to see the sympathy for her on here compared to the vitriol and haterd that spewed out over the woman who was sentenced last week for killing her 2 children in Spain. Why the different reaction?

Glamourousgranny - how can you even compare the case of this 2 year old with the woman in Spain who killed her kids. This woman is the same woman who turned her back on her own daughter after she told her mum that her stepdad was sexually abusing her. Melanie had a mental illness and needed help by a system who failed her. The Smith woman had different reasons for killing her kids and that I found as a mum absolutely selfish. I am not saying what Melanie did was right but had she had the right help it would not have gotten to that poor little boy losing his life. The Smith woman had a choice and she chose to kill her kids.