A MIDWIFE has been struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Register after a newborn baby boy died in her care.

Helen Ryder, 48, admitted that she failed to check the baby’s heart rate during the birth at Banbury’s Horton Hospital.

The baby boy, called Freddy, suffered catastrophic organ failure and brain damage during the induced labour in May 2007, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard on Friday.

He died the next day after his parents were told there was no hope and asked for life support machines to be turned off.

The mother, known as Patient A, was wheelchair-bound as she was suffering from a painful pregnancy complication, Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction, in which the pelvis joint becomes too mobile.

She had also suffered an earlier miscarriage.

Ryder said she had “assumed the case was low risk” when she took over care of the mother at 10pm.

She accepted that she failed to monitor the baby’s heart rate every 15 minutes in the first stage of labour and every five minutes in the second stage.

The midwife also admitted failing to measure Patient A’s blood pressure every hour and her pulse every 15 minutes, and didn’t adequately measure her temperature.

Bev Bennett, acting head of midwifery at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals said: “The trust apologises unreservedly to the parents for the poor care prior to the tragic death of their baby boy.

“Nothing can make up for the fact that a baby lost his life. However, we would like to reassure the family that we took action straight away to ensure that this midwife was not able to practise at our trust again.”