Pregnancy and childbirth

Mothers expecting a child depend upon the care and medical advice provided to them. It is vital for both mother and baby that all healthcare professionals must exercise due diligence to observe and manage any potential risks. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and mistakes made during the pregnancy could result in the mother and child suffering serious harm or injury, and in some cases death.

 

A non-exhaustive list of common causes of pregnancy and childbirth injury include:

• Failure to recognise and treat a maternal infection, untreated infections can cause maternal blood poisoning and can be harmful to unborn babies;
• Perineal tears, this is one of the most common injuries. In most cases perineal tears (a tear between the vagina and anus) are unavoidable due to the inability of the vaginal wall to stretch enough to allow the birth, there is however the potential that such tears can occur due to the negligence of medical staff asking the mother to push before her vaginal walls have had the natural ability to sufficiently stretch;
• Poorly managed pregnancy complications, complications such as pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure and protein in urine during pregnancy) when left unidentified can in serious cases result in death to the mother and baby;
• Absence of screening or errors made during the screening, regular screening of the mother and baby allows the detection of conditions including downs syndrome, developmental abnormalities, and heart or brain defects. This gives parents the option to terminate the pregnancy so as not to have a child with a significantly reduced quality of life; and
• Miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death negligence, sadly not every pregnancy ends well, sometimes it is just bad luck (we appreciate how dismissive this sounds but no other words seem to fit). If the death was due to poor monitoring of the baby’s development, then there may be a claim for damages.

 

How we can help

Our legal team would appoint a consultant paediatrician to assist them in creating a claim. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can appoint them to assist. These consultant paediatricians are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). The ultimate aim would be to get the trust to admit liability and confirm that your current condition has been left damaged in some way, admit the error and agree to a series of interim payments followed by a final settlement. The medical consultants will assess the entire situation. To address the claim element for mental trauma then we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.

 

The claim will consider two types of damages:

• General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
• Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future. This includes:
  • Costs of medication and treatment;
  • Loss of income and earnings; and the
  • Cost of additional medical apparatus.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.