a tribunal hearing has found a midwife failed in her duty of care to a teenage mother who she told to 'keep her legs together' after the young mum suffered a vaginal tear while giving birth new zealand's human rights review tribunal also heard community nurse natasha thomson showed up six minutes after the baby was born at her patient's house on january 15, 2012 she did this despite receiving five phone calls in one hour from the mother who described herself to be in 'excruciating pain' a new zealand human rights review tribunal found a midwife did not give appropriate care to a teenage mother after she suffered a vaginal tear while giving birth  at one point, ms thomson dismissed the increasingly urgent calls from the woman giving birth, her husband and the womon's mother by saying 'teenage mothers sometimes panic when labour starts,' the tribunal wrote in its judgement the patient   only known in tribunal documents as 'ms b'   gave birth to her baby 'on her hands and knees in the bathroom' thomson did not bring her scissors to cut the umbilical cord and instead had to use kitchen scissors found by the teenager's partner, mr b after examining ms b's perineum   the area between vagina and anus   thomson told the mother there was a tear it was a home birth and the midwife arrived late despite receiving five phone calls in one hour from the mother who described herself to be in 'excruciating pain' the teenage mother gave birth to her baby 'on her hands and knees in the bathroom' she said the tear was not a bad one, referring to it as only a 'tiny tear' thomson looked at her patient's perineum again and then advised ms b to be 'ladylike', and to keep her legs together and change her pads on a regular basis but tribunal documents say ms b had to be later admitted to hospital the midwife also had not told the new parents how to properly care for the wound, which was at risk of infection tribunal documents said ms b only went to hospital weeks later when the midwife should have had her admitted at the time  in the weeks after the pregnancy, ms b was in so much pain in her perineum that she could barely walk when ms b took a step she could feel the tear pull open, and found it very painful when urinating she told the defendant that she had tried to make a funnel to prevent the urine from touching the tear, and said that she could not bear the pain ms b became so desperate she even tied her thighs together with her dressing gown cord so that she would not pull the wound open when she walked the defendant laughed at ms b's use of the dressing gown cord, which caused ms b to feel disparaged the mother was found to have experienced a second degree vaginal tear that she was successfully treated for at wairau hospital  the defendant checked the tear and told ms b that the tear was 'healing fine' but ms b still told the defendant that she was in a lot of pain at no stage did the defendant refer ms b to a medical practitioner to assess the perineal tear ms b was only finally admitted to hospital weeks later on february 10, 2012, after she went to her gp about an infection on her finger that had spread to her hand and arm it was then ms b also asked the doctor to check her perineum the doctor called an obstetrician to assess her and she was found to have experienced a second degree tear that she was successfully treated for at wairau hospital
thomson natasha thomson one hour six minutes ms b ms
nurse natasha thomson showed up six minutes after the baby was born  despite her receiving five phone calls in one hour from the mother  it was a home birth and the mother was in 'excruciating pain' she gave birth to her baby 'on her hands and knees in the bathroom' thomson used the mother's kitchen scissors to cut the umbilical cord  after examining ms b's perineum she said there was a 'tiny tear' she told ms b to be 'ladylike', and to keep her legs together  but tribunal documents say ms b had to be later admitted to hospital 