Stephanie Peta Fleming startled the woman at her front door late at night, inflicting a series of cuts.

The defendant, 43, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court  in Launceston on Tuesday to wounding.

Defence counsel Fran McCracken requested an adjournment of her plea in mitigation for a psychiatric report to be prepared about whether Fleming’s mental health had affected her conduct.

Crown prosecutor Virginia Jones told the court Fleming and the victim were neighbours at the time of the attack in Pinkard Street, Kings Meadows.

She said about 11.30pm on February 21 this year, the woman was about to go to bed when she and her partner heard a female shouting outside.

Fleming’s yelling awoke the victim’s young children, the court was told.

Ms Jones said the woman’s partner went outside to investigate and when the woman followed him a short time later, Fleming came at her as she opened the front door.

‘‘The defendant made stabbing motions at the complainant three to four times before (the complainant) realised that she had been stabbed,’’ Ms Jones said.

The prosecutor said the woman tried to retreat inside but Fleming lunged at her again and the woman felt something hard on the back of her head.

Ms Jones said after a scuffle outside, Fleming ran up the road and the woman saw blood on her clothes, Ms Jones said.

The victim was treated for five cuts from two to 20 centimetres wide in the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department in the early hours of February 22.

The cuts were on her thumb down to the tendon, the back of her head, her left shoulder exposing her clavicle, a puncture wound to her upper back and another laceration below that wound.

Justice Robert Pearce ordered a psychiatric report and adjourned sentencing to February 1 at 2.15pm.