A midwife claims her life is a living hell as she fights allegations she needlessly gave pregnant women a powerful and potentially dangerous drug during labour.

Kirsty Stewart, 49, formerly of Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, says she is accused of administering syntocinon during the labour of up to 20 patients in a way which contributed to bradycardia, the slowing down of a baby's heart rate.

The drug, when used incorrectly, can cause serious complications and even death. She fears she could yet be struck off as a nurse.

She said that things began to go wrong five years ago after she complained a more senior member of staff was bullying her. Just days later, she was involved in a labour where the mother needed an emergency Caesarean section and she had started to administer syntocinon.

She said: "I had started the syntocinon as per protocol. It is first checked by another midwife, put in a bag, taken to the room, connected to a pump and then to the patient.”

She told a Sunday paper "Protocol states two midwives should do it but usual practice was one midwife or whoever was looking after the patient unless it was someone junior or someone who wasn't sure what to do. I had a break, I came back and the baby's heart rate dropped. I stopped syntocinon and informed medical staff. They said to restart the syntocinon but the baby's heart rate dropped again and she had to have a C-section.

"The sister was on that night who I had complained about. She initially removed the bag of syntocinon from the theatre.”

Ms Stewart said she and another colleague had removed the pump and sent it to medical physics for examination so they could look at its memory to see what had been administered. She did this because there was strict guidance on the use of the drug, which has to be given at specific intervals. If administered too quickly, it could cause foetal distress.

But her legal team was finally able to retrieve the pump report last year, which showed protocol had been followed.

She said she was suspended and then fired in March 2013 because the trend of foetal bradycardia associated with her practice suggested the inappropriate administration of drugs.

She was interviewed by he police but no prosecution followed. However now she understands she will appear before the Nursing and Midwifery Council later this year. She said "The whole situation is horrendous. "

Her legal representative Graham Mann, of Blackwater Law, said told the paper the case was "entirely dependent on anomaly and occurrence with no supporting statistical evidence".

NHS Grampian has not commented.