According to newspaper reports last summer, Fran Lyon, 22, is thought to be at risk of suffering from Münchhausen’s syndrome by proxy, a controversial condition in which people fabricate an illness in someone in their care. Sufferers, often mothers, can go so far as to injure their children to induce symptoms.
The social services department at Northumberland County Council recommended that the baby, which is due at the beginning of January, should be taken away from the woman when it is born.
The case became something of a cause célèbre last August and Fran Lyon sought a judicial review of the decision, arguing that the paediatrician who made the recommendation had never met her.
Now she is thought to be in hiding in an apartment in Sweden having established contact with a midwife.
Despite the fact that Lyon is wanted by the British authorities, there is nothing to stop her from having her child in Sweden.
“Obviously we will provide care to any woman wanting to give birth here,” said Eva Nilsson Bågenholm, chairman of the Swedish Medical Association, to Expressen.
However, Lyon could still find herself reported to the Swedish social services if doctors suspect something is amiss.
“Of course, if someone comes from another country then it begs the question: why are you giving birth here? Then perhaps we’ll discover something,” added Nilsson Bågenholm.
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