A MIDWIFE who has twice been struck off for failing to detect problems during births has said that she has been ‘driven out of the profession’.

Deborah Purdue – who delivered Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s children – has spoken of the injustice she feels at the ruling by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to strike her from the register of midwives for a second time.

Mrs Purdue, who lives in Iwerne Minster, near Blandford, said: “I have left the profession.

“It’s been an injustice, so after five years I have had enough and I’m out. I feel I have been driven out of the profession.”

She expressed a wish to move on with her life after the decision and leave the past five years behind.

Mrs Purdue, 49, was originally struck off last year after a baby boy died during a home birth.

The NMC heard that Purdue had failed to intervene on at least five occasions as a monitor showed an increased heart rate and failed to recognise the baby was upside down in the mother’s womb.

The father and mother later watched their baby die in hospital.

At the time Mrs Purdue was working for the Dorset and Wiltshire Independent Midwives, practising as an independent midwife across the region.

The company specialises in home-births including water births.

In February this year, Mrs Purdue successfully appealed against the NMC’s order in the High Court in London.

She was allowed to work under the conditions that she only work in the NHS and that she underwent supervision for a period of time.

Mrs Purdue worked at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester and in August her supervision was downgraded to the same level given to third year midwifery students.

A day later she came under scrutiny again, after she failed to take action after detecting an ‘abnormal’ foetal heart rate of 168 in an unborn child.

The baby was later diagnosed with a genetic condition and was transferred to DCH’s special baby care unit and survived.

The NMC then took the decision to investigate and held a hearing in London where they struck Mrs Purdue off a second time.

Mrs Purdue was not at the hearing.

NHS South West midwifery officer Val Beale told the hearing she had referred Purdue back to the regulator to protect the public.

She said: “The main concerns were the failure to monitor the foetal heart rate appropriately, the failure to assess the progress in labour and the failure to communicate to the woman and her husband.”

* A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said that the hospital had provided very close supervision for Mrs Purdue when she worked for them. He said: “It was a robust programme and she was very closely supervised. “No baby or mother was harmed in any way during that period because of her involvement in their care. “However our monitoring showed that in one case she did not respond appropriately to an abnormal foetal heart rate.” He added: “This did not adversely impact the mother or baby as she was only involved in monitoring the labour for a short time. “But following this we decided that her supervised practice could no longer continue with us and the matter was referred back to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.”