A Chinese doctor has been convicted and given a suspended death sentence for stealing babies from the hospital where she worked and sold them to criminal dealers.

Zhang Shuxia, who once worked in Fuping county in the north-western province of Shaanxi, had told parents their newborns had congenital problems and persuaded them to give them up, according to online postings by the Weinan intermediate people's court in Shaanxi.

A court on Tuesday convicted the doctor guilty of baby trafficking and sentenced her to death with a two-year reprieve. In China this usually means the sentence will be changed to life imprisonment after two years.

The case exposed a baby trafficking ring that operated across several provinces centering on Zhang. According to the postings she sold the babies to human traffickers, who then sold the babies at higher prices. In a July case Zhang was said to have pocketed 21,600 yuan (£2,200/US$3,600) when she passed a baby boy to a human trafficker, who sold the child for 59,800 yuan to a couple in central China's Henan province.

Altogether she sold seven babies to middlemen who resold the babies in central and eastern China between November 2011 and July 2013. Six of the babies were either returned or rescued by police but one that was voluntarily abandoned by its parents and sold for 1,000 yuan in April later died.

Child trafficking is a big problem in China, despite severe legal punishments that include the death penalty. Families who buy trafficked children are driven partly by the traditional preference for male heirs, a strict one-child policy and ignorance of the law.

The case has added to public frustration with China's medical profession over rampant bribery and other abuses.