A pregnant Melbourne schoolgirl has lost her bid to potentially refuse a life-saving blood transfusion, after doubts were cast on her maturity to consider the full enormity of the decision.

The young woman said it was against her Jehovah’s Witness religious beliefs to consent to the procedure but Mercy Hospitals Victoria applied to the Supreme Court seeking authority to give her blood, in the event that not doing so would threaten her life or cause serious injury.

She was originally booked in to have her labour induced on Wednesday but the procedure has been delayed until Sunday, with Justice Cameron Macaulay ruling on the dispute on Friday afternoon.

The court heard from experts who said that while the teenager had been very clear and consistent in her wishes she was influenced by a willingness to please her family and the community she was dependent on.

Associate Professor Campbell Paul, a consultant child psychiatrist at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, said the girl could have been trying to seek approval from those around her after committing the ‘‘transgression’’ of falling pregnant out of wedlock.