A DOCTOR wept as she admitted making mistakes and wasting time as a baby died during labour.

The mother needed an urgent caesarian but Dr Avanti Patil tried to deliver her with a suction cup and forceps 12 times, the General Medical Council heard.

The exhausted mother had been in labour for 24 hours at Southend Hospital, when her baby was stillborn.

Dr Patil told the panel there was an "uncomfortable atmosphere" in the delivery room during the delivery and she "did not feel respected".

The obstetrician told how the mother, known and Miss A, had become very tired during the long labour and screamed: "Just deliver the baby."

The doctor said she had not taken Miss A to have a caesarean.

Dr Patil explained: "She was pushing and I believed the baby would be there imminently."

Earlier the panel heard from two midwives who said Miss A's partner had pleaded for his wife to be taken to the theatre for caesarian and her mother, Miss B, who sat through the whole ordeal.

Dr Patil continued: "Miss A, Mr A and Miss B were there. I didn't address them taking their names, but I was looking at them.

"There was no response from them, they didn't make eye contact with me.

"It was like they didn't want to hear from me."

The doctor added she felt under pressure because Mr A was pacing up and down the room and wanted her to perform a caesarean "then and there".

She told the panel: "I kept talking to Miss A. I don't feel she was taking everything in and it is difficult if you have been labour for such a long time. I don't blame her." One of the allegations against Dr Patil was that a Syntocinon infusion - a drug to induce contractions - had been given to the Miss A at an extremely high rate.

The doctor admitted she had assumed the midwife would have stopped the drug but that she should have checked herself.

She wept as she told the panel: "I felt a lot of pressure and after a while I just wished I could have five minutes of peace and quiet to do this because I had done it before. I wasted time. I was distracted."

Miss A was taken for a caesarean at around 7pm on July 23 2003, but it was too late and the baby was dead.

Dr Patil admits her failure to take Miss A to theatre and the delay in the caesarean section was inappropriate and not in the best interests of Miss A and her baby.

But she denies her conduct fell seriously below the standard expected of a reasonably competent registrar. Dr Patil qualified in Shivaji, India in 1998 and was registered with the GMC in 2003.

The hearing continues.