A midwifery boss has said there was "errors in communications" between midwives and the mum of a baby girl who died after three days.

Maidstone mum Elena Sala has consistently said if she had been allowed to push when she wanted to her daughter Rosanna Matthews would be alive.

However, on the fourth day of the inquest in Maidstone, the court heard from Rachel Thomas, head of midwifery and gynaecology at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, who said communication between the midwives and Ms Sala wasn't good.

Rosanna Matthews died three days after being born at Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells in November 2020.

The tot was born via c-section and needed resuscitation before being transferred to Medway Maritime Hospital where she was in a coma and died days later.

The inquest was scheduled for four days but the court was told today a conclusion wouldn't be heard and would need to be rescheduled.

Dates at the end of September were suggested.

'They were out of their depth...'

Ms Sala and her partner David Matthews have been left "frustrated and disappointed" after a conclusion into their daughter's death wasn't heard.

Previously, a report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found there was a failure from staff to escalate monitoring after Ms Sala made it clear she felt like she had to push, as well as failing to recognise and escalate that the cardiotocography (CTG) trace, which monitors foetal heart rate and contractions, was abnormal.

When asked whether she agreed with part of the report, Ms Thomas said in hindsight and retrospect the midwives should have acted differently when it comes to communication with Ms Sala and whether observations of the "low risk" mum would have been increased.

Earlier in the week the hearing heard Ms Sala, a former barmaid and Mascalls student, slammed midwives as "unprofessional, rude and sarcastic".

In a statement she said: “They were out of their depth. They were bickering and snapping at the doctor. It seemed like they were passing the blame.”

Ms Sala claimed one of the midwives, Agatha Carter, who gave evidence during the hearing, was "rude" and dismissed her concerns while she lay on the floor in agony.

The mother-of-one, who gave birth to daughter Lola last year, said she was made to feel “embarrassed and intimidated”.

During the first two days of the hearing at Archbishop’s Place in Maidstone, the court heard how Rosanna was a “perfectly healthy” baby in pregnancy, up until the final couple of weeks.

Counsel for Ms Sala and her husband, David Matthews, explained how Ms Sala arrived at Pembury at around 8.15am on November 20, 2020, but was told to go home and return in two hours' time as she was only 3cm dilated.

After leaving and returning at 11.40am she was still 3cm dilated but in “a lot of pain” and a couple of hours later, at around 1.30pm, was given gas and air, pethidine and water injections to try and stop back pain she was experiencing.

The court was told how in the next few hours there would be a delay in getting an epidural due to no anaesthetists being available and how Ms Sala would be told to fight the urge to push.

Ms Sala said at one point she was told to sit down but didn’t want to as it felt like she was “sitting on the baby’s head”, and claimed her two midwives - Catherine Lewis and Agatha Carter - wouldn’t let her push.

At around 4pm a registrar was called to the room - after an epidural was finally given - and conducted an internal examination where the meconium - the first stool of a newborn - was found and the baby was in the birth canal.

At this point Ms Sala was in “agonising and huge pain” and around an hour later she was taken to theatre to deliver the baby after a panic alarm was sounded when the foetal heart rate dropped to around 50 beats per minute.

The verdict of the inquest will be heard on another date.