Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is in a category of mental disorders known as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), and it results in crimes that are labeled medical abuse. Generally misunderstood, MBP is often sensationalized in the media. With her podcast, “Nobody Should Believe Me,” Andrea Dunlop has shared with her audience various MBP cases and the work of those trying to protect young victims. That work continues in her book, THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR, which is co-authored by Mike Weber, an investigator specializing in crimes against children. Here, they dispel myths about this form of child abuse.

Using three cases of MBP to explore the crimes, detection, investigation and consequences, as well as the familial and psychological damage done, Dunlop and Weber find similarities but highlight the differences among them. After an introduction to MBP, including their professional and personal interests in it, they dive into cases that garnered media and legal attention and are indicative of both MBP and the responses to it by medical and law enforcement professionals, the courts and the media.

"The tales in THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR are difficult to read, but the book is fascinating and illuminating. Dunlop and Weber handle the topic with sensitivity and honesty."

Their account of the Hope Ybarra case begins in 2009 as Hope, a young mother of three, is letting her children know that she is dying of cancer. The Ybarra family was all too familiar with medical trauma; five-year-old Sophia had been seriously ill her whole life. It turned out, though, that Hope wasn’t dying of cancer, and Sophia wasn’t sick in the ways her mother insisted she was. In fact, not much of what Hope told people was true. Despite being treated for many ailments over the years, with medicines, orthotics and even surgeries, most tests conducted failed to find anything wrong with Sophia.

Because a lot of pediatric medicine relies on the parents (and this often falls to mothers who usually are the caregivers with MBP) to give medical history and detailed information about symptoms, and because various medical institutions rarely communicate about patients, those with MBP can game this system and claim that children have diagnoses and prescriptions from other practitioners.

Unlike all too many parents who abuse their children using the medical system and the sympathy of friends, family and community, Hope was investigated, tried and convicted of her crimes. While justice is occasionally served, victims of MBP are left reeling from the physical and emotional devastation.

Next, Dunlop and Weber recount the case of Brittany Phillips and her daughter, Alyssa. Whereas Hope was cunning, Brittany was aggressive in her demands that doctors treat her daughter for a laundry list of conditions and symptoms. Many of those, the authors explain, are common among MBP occurrences. Alyssa, like Sophia and her siblings, was rescued from her abuse, and Brittany was jailed. But this happened only after much pain and suffering on the part of this young girl.

The final story in the book, that of Mary Welch and her son, Gabriel, follows many of the same patterns seen across MBP cases. Dunlop and Weber outline not just the horrific abuses, but also the difficulties investigating MBP, the reluctance of court systems to remove children from their parents, and the ways in which MBP caregivers are able to manipulate medical institutions and privacy laws to abuse their own children.

The tales in THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR are difficult to read, but the book is fascinating and illuminating. Dunlop and Weber handle the topic with sensitivity and honesty. Thoughtful, yet clinical and highly knowledgeable, they bring a strong sense of storytelling as they explain and explore MBP in this frightening and important work.