Types of childbirth negligence claims | When is a birth injury classed as negligence?

Often, healthcare professionals can prevent many birth injuries with the correct medical care. If you or your child did not receive adequate care in the run-up to the birthing injury, you might be eligible to file a childbirth negligence claim.

Here, we guide you through the common instances of birth injury negligence, how to make a negligence claim, and what to expect when you make a birth injury negligence claim.

What are the different types of birth injury negligence cases?

The following are some common types of birth injury negligence cases:

Failure to treat an infection

If infections are left untreated, they can quickly result in septic shock, which can be fatal for both the mother and baby. Mothers who have just given birth are particularly at risk of infection, so healthcare professionals should treat infections as soon as they notice them. They should also frequently check for signs of an infection.

Mistreatment of difficult births

Difficult births are those that last longer than 18 hours. If a difficult birth is not monitored correctly, severe trauma can be experienced by both the mother and the child. During a difficult birth, nurses and midwives must correctly monitor the unborn child's condition for any signs of distress so that doctors can put solutions into place before damage is caused.

Failure to monitor a birth correctly

Healthcare professionals must carefully monitor all births to check the health of the baby. To correctly monitor a birth, healthcare professionals must monitor the heartbeat of the baby and the contractions of the mother's uterus during labour. If either is not observed correctly, problems related to the birth may be missed and could result in injury.

Failure to monitor the condition of an unborn child

During all stages of pregnancy, doctors must monitor your unborn child's heartbeat to ensure that the baby is developing healthily. If they do not carry this monitoring out correctly, serious health problems may go unnoticed, which could result in injury.

Lack of screening/mistakes with screening

Babies can be screened for conditions such as Down’s Syndrome, Spina Bifida, heart or brain defects and other developmental abnormalities, providing parents with the option to terminate their pregnancy. If a healthcare professional misinterprets a screening or does not perform one correctly, vital signs of your unborn child's health may go unnoticed. During pregnancy, you should be screened regularly to check the health of your baby.

Unmanaged/mismanaged pregnancy complications

If there is a complication during pregnancy, it should be managed with urgency by healthcare professionals. If there is any delay in the help you receive or if you receive incorrect help, this may be classified as unmanaged/mismanaged pregnancy complications. Pre-eclampsia can cause the mother to have high blood pressure, putting her at risk of stroke, fits, HELLP syndrome and multiple organ failure.

Miscarriage or stillbirth resulting from inadequate antenatal monitoring of a baby's development

If your baby was stillborn due to inadequate monitoring, you could claim negligence. Babies should be regularly monitored before and during birth to check for their heart rate and any health concerns.

Injuries to an infant during/after birth

Hospitals and healthcare professionals should do everything in their power to prevent a baby from being injured during or after birth. Poor handling of a baby can lead to bruising and even more severe injuries. Injuries to an infant can include infant brain damage or injury, which can result in a stroke or Cerebral Palsy due to lack of oxygen (perinatal hypoxia), or Erb’s Palsy (usually caused by shoulder dystocia). Other injuries can include fractured bones, nerve damage/paralysis and seizures due to bleeding on the brain. Failure to diagnose and treat neonatal hypoglycemia (NH) in infants can also result in devastating and irreversible brain damage.

Has your baby sustained injuries due to negligence? Contact us to find out how we can help!

Injuries to a mother after birth

While it can be difficult to prevent an injury during birth, mothers should be properly cared for after birth. This means giving the mother a comfortable bed, treating any wounds that were inflicted during the birth and regularly checking the mother's health after the birth. Injuries to the mother after birth can include third and fourth-degree perineal tears and incorrectly performed episiotomies. Negligent caesarean sections can also cause damage to organs, among other surgical injuries.

Retained products of conception

During childbirth, all products of conception must be removed from the uterus. This includes foetal tissue and the placenta. Failure to remove these could result in an injury to the mother.

Midwifery and Obstetrics negligence

This can include negligent induced labour, improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors during delivery and incorrect suturing.

Can you make a birth injury claim?

To be eligible to claim for medical negligence after experiencing a birth injury, the injury must have been caused directly by the mistake of medical staff, or there must have been a clear delay in treating an existing problem, resulting in further damage. An example of clinical negligence could be the failure to correctly monitor a child's heartbeat or development during pregnancy, resulting in serious health conditions such as Cerebral palsy.

Find out what to expect from compensation for a birth injury negligence claim here.

What to expect when making a claim

Was birth injury attributed to negligent care?

When making a claim, the first step of the process is to determine whether the injury was due to medical negligence. To do this, you can ask for an investigation to be carried out by Obstetric, Midwifery and other experts, who will retrace the treatment that took place and make evaluations on the strength of your birth injury compensation claim. These investigations help to move a claim forward and increase your chances of a successful negligence claim.

Can I get compensation?

If your evaluation supports your claim that the injury was due to birth negligence, you may be able to achieve birth injury compensation. When deciding on adequate compensation, the proceedings will take several considerations into account:

• How severe was the damage/injury?
• Did the injury cause emotional or physical birth trauma to you or your child?
• Were there any associated care/medical costs?
• Is the injury/damage long-lasting, such as brain injury?

How do I make a hospital negligence claim?

The first step to making a hospital negligence claim is to contact a specialist medical negligence law firm, such as Wake Smith, who will be able to support you throughout the process. Once you have made your complaint, you will need to collect evidence to prove that the negligence took place - this will be done through an investigation. If there is enough evidence to make a claim, the case is taken to court.

What can I expect from a hospital negligence claim for a birth injury?

The amount of compensation you receive will depend on the extremity of damage caused to you or your baby and will also depend on the factors above. At Wake Smith, we do everything in our power to ensure that you are adequately compensated for any damage that has been caused and use our team of professionals to receive proper justice for your birth injury case.

Find out more about birth injury compensation here.

Will I have to go to court?

Many clinical negligence cases are solved without going to court; however, you may have to go to court if you cannot solve your case with any other method. At Wake Smith, we will guide you through the entire court process and provide you with all the support you may need.

How Wake Smith can help

We have a strong team of highly experienced medical negligence solicitors to guide you through your medical negligence claim and ensure that you receive the right compensation. We have a successful track record in medical claims and have also represented clients under the human rights act. With Wake Smith, you can be sure that our clinical negligence team will handle your case with utmost importance and that we will do everything in our power to help your case.

Contact us here to find out more.

Frequently asked questions

How much can you claim for childbirth injury negligence?

The amount you can claim for your case will depend on various factors, such as the severity of damage or injury caused by negligence. This will be determined through an investigation into your case.

What are the stages of a medical negligence claim?

We recommend taking the following steps when making a medical negligence claim:

• Contact a law firm and make a complaint.
• Investigate the treatment that was given.
• Build a case using the evidence that has been collected.
• Your law firm will advise on how to take your case forward, which may result in going to court.

What is duty of care in medical negligence?

Doctors will have a duty of care to their patients, which means that they must prevent harm or injury from being suffered by pregnant mothers and their children.

How do you know if you have a medical negligence case?

The best way to determine whether or not you have a medical negligence case is to get in touch with a specialist law firm and ask for an investigation to be carried out.

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