'You don't deserve this baby': What a bullying midwife told me during a botched delivery, by BBC journalist
*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*- Midwife told me I didn't deserve the baby and she was going to take it away, claims mother
- Hearing heard mother was given medication she previously had an allergic reaction to
Heather Paterson told the Nursing & Midwifery Council that midwife Toby had shouted at her and called her a 'silly girl' during the traumatic birth"
Biobelemoye Toby told Heather Paterson she ‘did not deserve’ her child as she cried out for help in the throes of labour, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
The midwife is also said to have told the BBC World Service journalist ‘no pain, no gain’ as she begged to see a doctor.
Miss Paterson, then 41, was two weeks overdue when she was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North-West London, for an induction on March 24, 2005.
Her baby, Riley Arthur Croft was born the following morning with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Despite efforts to resuscitate him, he could not be saved.
Toby, who was left in charge of Miss Paterson’s care, is said to have taken a ‘school ma’am’ attitude towards the expectant mother, leaving her ‘intimidated and terrified’.
Miss Paterson said: ‘She was very condescending in tone and bullying. I felt I had to shut up and do what she said. She was a total bully.’
The panel heard Miss Paterson went into labour on March 23, but was sent home as her contractions were not very strong.
She was told by a doctor they would induce the birth by breaking her waters the following day. But when Miss Paterson returned for the procedure, Toby instead gave her Prostin, a medicinal gel that starts labour. The committee was told the midwife incorrectly gave Miss Paterson double the dose she should have done and then left her patient alone, despite her complaining of being in pain.
Toby, 71, is also accused of later giving Miss Paterson, now 47, pain-relieving Pethidine, despite the fact she had previously shown an allergic reaction to it.
'Mentally tortured': Journalist Heather Paterson lost her baby after a botched delivery at the Royal Free Hospital"
Ms Paterson said the second midwife Blankson (pictured) barked at the couple and left them alone for '90 per cent of the time'. Toby did not attend citing poor health.
Ms Paterson (pictured) and her husband said they were treated with contempt by the two midwives"
Miss Paterson said: ‘I asked for a doctor to come and see me, I screamed it down the corridor.
‘She told me the pain wasn’t real, that I didn’t need a doctor, that I didn’t deserve the baby and that she was going to take the baby away.’
She said Toby then gave her the choice of ‘Pethidine or pain’. Miss Paterson added: ‘I was in so much agony, I thought I was going to die and took the Pethidine.’
The journalist said she slipped in and out of consciousness and went into convulsions at one stage during the labour.
‘She treated me with contempt and denied me my human rights,’ she said. ‘She tortured me mentally. I was totally intimidated. I was terrified. I was in fear of what was going to happen which was why I kept demanding a doctor because I knew that this woman was evil.’
Toby is not attending the central London hearing and has cited poor health for her absence.
She faces being struck off if she is found guilty of the numerous charges against her which include a failure to promote the health and wellbeing of Miss Paterson.
A second midwife, Beverley Blankson, denies leaving Miss Paterson’s husband Iain Croft, to watch their unborn baby boy’s heart monitor during the labour.
Earlier Mr Croft, also a BBC World Service journalist, said he heard Toby tell his wife: ‘You are a silly girl, you don’t deserve this baby. I am going to take it off you.’
He said that he and his wife were made to feel they were ‘too posh to push and hyper sensitive’ as the labour progressed. The hearing continues. An inquest in 2007 ruled Riley died of ‘natural causes to which neglect contributed’.
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