A WOMAN who was forced to have a Caesarean section by Essex social services said she was drugged and tricked.

The 35-year-old Italian woman said on the day of the birth, she begged to return home, but instead was sedated.

The unnamed woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder, is reported to have come to Britain while pregnant to attend a training course with an airline at Stansted Airport.

After she stopped taking medication she had a panic attack and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

The Court of Protection took the unusual step of giving a health trust permission for doctors to carry out a Caesarean section in August last year, and the newborn child was taken into care by Essex social services.

Speaking to the Sun newspaper, the woman said: “On the day of the birth, I thought they were moving me to a new room.

“Then I was sedated and when I woke up she wasn’t with me. I want my daughter back.”

Stefano Oliva, the unnamed woman’s lawyer, has hit out at Essex County Council after social services made the decision.

Mr Oliva told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I do not understand why my client has been forced to have a Caesarean section. It is a very unusual statement to be issued by a judge. From my point of view, this decision is absolutely unreasonable.”

Mr Oliva said the mother was permitted to see her baby once a week until the end of October, when she moved back to Italy to get support from her family.

After returning to her home country, she came back to Britain once a month to visit the child.

This arrangement stood until May this year when social workers told her it would be the last time she would see her daughter, he said. In February, Judge Newton, sitting at Chelmsford County Court, ruled that although the mother’s condition had improved and she was “extremely well” when she gave evidence, adoption was the best way to provide “a permanent, predictable and stable home” for the baby.

The council had argued adoption was “the only safe route”.

The North Essex Mental Health Partnership said: “The pregnancy made it difficult to treat the mother as medications would have affected the unborn child. The application for the Caesarean was made to the Court of Protection to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both mother and baby.

"We can see why this is such a troubling case, but it hinges on the difficult balance of the best interests of the mother and baby.