THE parents of a baby, who died in the care of a midwife who was last week struck off, have spoken of their child’s “appalling” treatment.

Teresa, 41, and Richard Wood, 51, said they did “not for one moment” expect problems at the May 2007 birth of their first child, Freddie, at Banbury’s Horton Hospital.

He suffered catastrophic organ failure and brain damage during the induced labour.

Medics told the couple, then of Middle Barton, there was no hope and requested they agree to switch off his life-support machine.

Nursing chiefs struck off midwife Helen Ryder, 48, after she accepted failing to monitor the baby’s heart rate every 15 minutes in the first stage of labour and every five minutes in the second.

She also admitted failing to measure the mother’s blood pressure every hour and pulse every 15 minutes and adequately measuring her temperature.

Ryder admitted inappropriately administering obstetric drug syntometrine.

In a statement, the family said: “Our baby boy, Freddie, died almost four years ago now. It has been a difficult and agonising time, not just for me and my husband, but for our families and friends too.

“We put our complete trust in the health professionals, and expected to be going home with our long-awaited for, healthy baby.

“For not one moment did we think that things would be so very different.

“Helen Ryder failed to provide the most basic level of care to both me and our baby, which everyone in this day and age is entitled to.”

Mrs Wood was in a wheelchair as she had symphysis pubis dysfunction, a pregnancy complication in which the pelvis joint becomes too mobile. She had also suffered an earlier miscarriage.

But Ryder said she “assumed the case was low risk” when she took over care of the mother at 10pm.

The couple, who are now parents to two-year-old Millie, said of the hearing: “We feel that this is 100 per cent the correct verdict.

“We have to live with our grief every day and for the rest of our lives.

“This verdict does not change that for us. However, it does mean we can rest knowing that no-one else will be subjected to her appalling level of nursing and lack of care.”

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised and said it took immediate action to remove Ryder, who is no longer at the trust.