A MIDWIFE tried to carry out an internal examination on a mum-to-be who was screaming and pushing her away, a hearing heard.

Fatma Cole, 54, ignored the woman's cries and carried on with the intimate procedure in the delivery suite at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Cole, who also worked at Burnley General, is accused of failing to call a doctor or set up extra heart monitors despite recording a deceleration in the pulses of two newborn babies.

She also got a tot's sex confused and sent a new mother home when she was suffering from a tear that needed a urgent medical treatment, the panel has heard.

Angela O'Toole, Cole's manager at the delivery suite, said that woman had given birth at the unit on September 24, 2004 when Cole tried to perform the examination.

She said: “I became very alarmed when I turned around from what I was doing with the baby and saw Miss Cole trying to carry out an examination on the woman and the woman with her hand over Miss Cole's hand, pushing her away.

“I did not hear Miss Cole ask for consent to carry out the examination and the lady was extremely distressed, shouting.”

Miss O'Toole said her concerns about Cole's abilities as a midwife grew a fortnight later on October 7 when she failed to act as baby's heart rate dropped dramatically during birth.

If Colewho is attending the London hearing, is found guilty of misconduct by the NMC panel, she faces being kicked out of the profession.

Cole, from Blackburn, admits failing to accurately record the sex of a newborn baby, failing to identify a third degree perineal tear and failing to set up a foetal heart monitor after recording abnormal heart patterns.

She has also admitted recording the wrong sex of a newborn baby in a patient's labour notes.

She denies trying to carry out a vaginal examination without the consent of the patient, failing to recognise severe jaundice and failing to interpret and report deviations on the partogram.

Proceeding