Midwife struck off for claiming terrorists could poison baby milk

Midwife accused of professional misconduct as string of accusations from 2015 to 2019 emerges

File: In this file photograph dated 6 March 2007, a young boy is weighed after being born in an NHS maternity unit, in Manchester, England (Getty Images)

A midwife who told a mother that terrorists could contaminate formula milk to “kill babies” in a bid to persuade her to breastfeed her newborn, has been banned from the profession.

Anna Semenenko, 59, was struck off from the profession earlier this month after the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found her comments made on July 2016 to be “highly inappropriate”.

While Ms Semenemko denied the allegation against her, the panel noted that her comments “had the potential to cause emotional harm to the patient and her family”.

The panel made the remarks while detailing the charges against her as a string of professional misconduct accusations from November 2015 to 10 July 2019 emerged.

“The panel considered Ms Semenenko’s conduct to be unprofessional and that she failed to treat her patient with dignity and respect as she sought to influence the patient’s choices by providing her with this false and misleading information,” it said.

“Another registered professional would find Ms Semenenko’s conduct in this charge to be shocking and unacceptable,” said the panel, as it concluded that her conduct amounted to “misconduct”.

In another separate instance, on 2 November 2017, Ms Semenenko was accused of attempting to remove a patient’s nightdress without their warning or consent.  She also reportedly pressured the patient’s partner and mother to watch the birth against the patient’s wishes. Ms Semenenko was also accused of making inappropriate remarks about her “pretty vagina” and taking its picture “without clinical reason or consent”.

In another instance in 2016, Ms Semenenko allegedly told a patient while carrying out the vaginal examination that “your husband must have a small penis as you are very tense”.

The panel held that her comments “would have caused embarrassment to the patient and is likely to have caused her emotional harm and distress whilst in a situation where the patient was likely to be vulnerable”.

It added that her conduct in this charge “fell far below the standards of a registered midwife and that it was wholly inappropriate to use words of this nature at any time but particularly in these circumstances”.

According to the BBC, Joseph Cooray, who represented Ms Semenenko, said he would move to the High Court in the matter.