A MOTHER whose baby died when he was five hours old in hospital, told an inquest yesterday that doctors seemed to panic at the birth.

Gillian Hoyle told a hearing into his death that the delivery of her son, Maxim, at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, had been "horrible".

Mrs Hoyle, who was born in Redcar, east Cleveland, had lost a baby girl at an hour old four years before through a cardiac abnormality. She also later suffered a miscarriage.

The hearing was told that she had travelled to Teesside from her home in Bradford for the birth last June.

At 34, she was categorised as a high dependency patient.

She said: "Problems started at the second stage of labour. I was actually pushing. They had me in stirrups and out of stirrups. My mother said she could not watch anymore; it was a horrible birth. There seemed to be panic stations."

She said midwives started to prepare her for surgery, but a doctor told them to wait.

She said she screamed in agony when there was a problem with a suction cup intended for the baby's head.

Consultant gynaecologist Dr Robert Hutchison confirmed the problem with the suction cup.

He said: "She had been in second stage long enough to indicate it was very likely she would need some form of assisted delivery; that rather than wait for a further period of time, and thereby compromise both mother and baby, it was appropriate to expedite delivery."

The inquest continues.