In a harrowing Mama Mia story, it details the story of how mother Tami Revering shook her best friend’s four-month-old baby so hard she almost killed him.
Tami had been suffering from postnatal depression, but now that she is better she makes it a point to tell her story over and over again, in blogs, and interviews and parenting lectures so that no other mother or child would suffer from the same things as she had.
Her story begins on November 10, 2010.
She dragged herself out of bed at 6am and got herself and the kids ready for the day. Her best friend brought her kids around 7am and we went about our day.
“That morning, it was a Wednesday, I brought the kids to an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) play time,” she said in her blog.
“When the class ended, I remember one of the educators asking me if I wanted help bringing the 4 children out to my van.
She smiled and said she could handle it.
“I lied. I couldn’t handle it. I wanted to tell her, I was exhausted and needed a nap. I wanted to tell her how I had been feeling. I wanted to ask her if it was normal to be so sad everyday.”
But Tami was terrified, so she brought the four children to the van and drove home.
Back home she fed the three children and laid them out for naps, after which she fed the baby his bottle and put him down on the crib.
Exhausted, Tami wanted to rest, but before she could the baby began to cry.
“I went into the room and tried rocking him, that didn’t seem to help. I laid him back down and went to sit on the couch,” Tami recalled.
“The best way I can describe what was going on in my head sounds strange…It was like I had a white light on one shoulder telling me to stay on the couch, the baby will be fine. I had a dark light on the other shoulder telling me to go to the baby and make it stop crying.”
Find out on the next page what happened to the boy
“Back and forth, I don’t remember how long I sat on the couch.
“Eventually the dark light won, and I got up, walked to the crib, picked up the baby, and shook him.
“His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and he started having a seizure. Time stopped. I cradled him, and kept say his name over and over and over. I ran to get my phone and I dialed 9-1-1.”
When the police arrived, she was hysterical.
“I shook him,” she screamed. “Just shoot me.”
After finding out what she had done, the police arrested her, placed in solitary confinement for three days, and then was admitted to a psychiatric ward.
Baby Anders nearly died, and as a result of Tami’s actions, Anders will endure permanent learning disabilities. He will also like take medications for seizures for the rest of his life.
What Ander looks like now; Photo credit: Tami Revering
According to the Mama Mia story, before this incident Tami and her best friend’s families were tight, having spent together and went to holidays together. The couples went even to university together.
These days they keep in touch with each other via e-mail. They even appeared together many times at lectures.
Tami’s best friend Angie Pengelly has forgiven her, but their friendship could never continue.”
“Revering was sentenced to a year in prison—a staggered sentence over eight years,” said the mama Mia story. “She reports to jail for the entire month of June each year, the month of Ander’s birthday, and for 15 days each November, the month the shaking took place.”
Tami admitted that she’s still suffering from depression, and she hasn’t quite forgiven herself yet for what she’s done. She wishes, however, that her story would educate women to seek help for post natal depression.
She said in her blog:
“I am not telling this story because I think it’s a good one, I am telling this story because my heart aches, and this could have been prevented.”
READ: Baby blues vs Post-partum depression: What’s the difference?
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