A midwife has been banned from nursing after threatening a mother that her four-day-old twins would be taken away if she failed to tidy her Oxford hospital room.

Mrs Anna Troitskaya-Smith, 37, was found guilty of professional misconduct and struck off the nursing register, after bullying the 18-year-old, who has learning difficulties, at the emergency baby unit, in the John Radcliffe Hospital Women's Centre, Oxford.

The mother, referred to as Miss A, was reduced to tears, the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting disciplinary committee heard in London yesterday.

Katrina Wingfield, solicitor to the UKCC, said the incident happened while Miss A and her boyfriend, Mr B, were looking after their sons, who had been born by Caesarean section on December 22, 1999.

She said: "Both she and her partner needed considerable support in coping with the two boys and were extremely vulnerable."

The hearing was told that on Boxing Day, Mrs Troitskaya-Smith ordered them to clean their room for an inspection. Miss Wingfield said the midwife returned at 8pm and became very angry.

She said: "Miss A was holding one baby and her partner was on the bed with the other. Anna took the baby from Miss A and spoke abruptly to Mr B, then pointed to the floor and said the room was a complete mess and if they weren't careful social services would take the children away from them.

"This caused distress to both Miss A and her partner."

Miss A told the hearing: "She kept saying stuff that the room was untidy, we were unfit parents and social services were going to come and take the children away.

"She dragged me from the bed and told me to get on the floor. She said there was rubbish on the floor and there wasn't."

Mr B said: "She started being really rude and nasty to us. I asked Anna to give me the baby and get out, but she wouldn't."

Midwife Deborah Rolls said she arrived at the scene after Mr B ran down the corridor shouting for help.

She said: "I went in and saw Miss A underneath her bed on her knees crying. She was really shaking."

She said Mrs Troitskaya-Smith had bullied Miss A "as if she was telling off a naughty child".

Mrs Troitskaya-Smith, of Didcot, did not attend the hearing and was not represented.

A JR spokesman said the hospital would not comment until later in the week.