A Sydney woman who drowned her baby after becoming obsessed with her mistaken belief she had dwarfism has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Mark Hobart SC said the Crown accepted her plea on the basis of substantial impairment due to an abnormality of the mind, reports 9 news.

The six-month-old girl was discovered floating in the bathtub of her home in Sydney’s Inner West on November 18, 2010.

The mother was admitted to various psychiatric institutions and in 2014 was deemed unfit to face trial.

A special hearing was held under the Mental Health Act, when Justice Geoffrey Bellew found, on the limited evidence available, that she had intentionally drowned her baby.

He found she had resented the baby girl, was “obsessed with perfection” and became increasingly anxious she was “seeing the signs of a dwarf”.

She refused to accept medical assurances that her daughter was “normal”.

The judge imposed a limiting term, meaning the maximum amount of time she could be detained in a mental health facility, of 20 years.

Last July, another judge granted her bail, on condition she reside in a mental health facility, after experts agreed she was fit to face trial.

She was taking appropriate medication and her mental condition had significantly improved.

The woman was due to face a murder trial this week, but entered her guilty plea to manslaughter on Wednesday.

Justice Robert Beech-Jones adjourned the case to next Friday to enable the parties to prepare an agreed statement of facts before her sentencing hearing takes place on a future date.

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