Birth Injury Claims
Medical Negligence Solicitors in Oldham, helping clients across the North West
Birth Injury Claims Solicitors
Doctors and midwives owe a duty of care to you and your baby both throughout the pregnancy and during the delivery. Where the healthcare provider has failed to meet the required standard of care, and if you or your child has suffered a traumatic birth injury as a result, our specialist medical negligence team can help you to secure the compensation that you deserve.
If you or a loved one has suffered avoidable harm during pregnancy, labour, delivery or postnatal care, our experienced medical negligence solicitors can help. To discuss your birth injury claim with a specialist medical negligence solicitor, please either telephone us on 01457 761 320 or email kenneth.lees@odonnellsolicitors.co.uk, and a member of the team will contact you for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Understanding Birth Injury Claims
Birth injuries can affect the mother, the baby or both, and the consequences can range from short-term recoverable injuries to lifelong disability. A birth injury claim looks at whether the care provided during antenatal appointments, labour, delivery or postnatal care fell below the standard of a responsible body of obstetricians, midwives or other healthcare professionals, and whether that failure caused or materially contributed to the injuries sustained.
Because birth injuries to a baby can affect a child for the rest of their life, claims often need to provide for significant long-term care, therapy, accommodation and support needs.
How Birth Injury Negligence Can Occur
Birth injuries can be caused by a range of failings in maternity and obstetric care, including:
- Failure to adequately monitor and manage maternal health conditions during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, infection, placental complications, or pre-eclampsia
- Failure to adequately monitor foetal development during pregnancy, such as failure to perform or act upon serial growth scans, or failure to offer caesarean section
- Failure to adequately monitor foetal condition during labour and delivery, including failure to respond to signs of foetal distress, which can result in oxygen deprivation before birth and cause brain damage
- Inappropriate use of forceps or ventouse during delivery, causing injury to mother and/or baby
- Inappropriate management of shoulder dystocia
- Inappropriate management of breech positioning
- Failure to plan or progress to caesarean section following a prolonged labour
- Delayed diagnosis and treatment of perineal tears
- Inadequate repair following episiotomy
- Failed sterilisation
- Failure to warn parents of the child’s genetic disease or disability
Birth injuries have a significant and often lifelong impact on both mother and baby.
Where the injury results in disability or long-term needs, our medical negligence solicitors work to obtain compensation substantial enough to cover ongoing care, therapies, specialist equipment, accommodation adaptations and loss of earnings, both for the child and for the parents who become full-time carers.
The specialist medical negligence team at O’Donnell Solicitors has extensive experience in working with clients to identify issues with the care that they have received, understand the extent of the injury and loss suffered, and secure compensation to provide for any future needs.
For more information on how a medical negligence claim works, including time limits, funding and compensation, please see our main Medical Negligence page.
For more on the specific legal and emotional considerations of stillbirth claims, please see our guide to stillbirth negligence claims.
Types of Birth Injury Claims We Can Help With
The specialist medical negligence team at O’Donnell Solicitors has helped families across the North West with a wide range of birth injury claims, including:
- Cerebral palsy claims
- Erb’s palsy and brachial plexus injury claims
- Stillbirth and neonatal death claims
- Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and birth-related brain injury claims
- Perineal tear and episiotomy claims
- Wrongful birth claims
- Maternal birth injury claims, including injuries resulting from failed or delayed caesarean section
- Pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome mismanagement claims
- Fatal claims and inquests following maternal or neonatal death
Why Choose O’Donnell Solicitors for Your Birth Injury Claim
O’Donnell Solicitors’ Medical Negligence Department is headed by Kenneth Lees and supported by a team with over a decade of combined experience in clinical negligence litigation. We offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation, and the vast majority of claims can be funded by way of a no win, no fee agreement. As a regional firm acting for clients across the North West, we combine specialist expertise with a personal and accessible service.
Kenneth Lees has extensive experience in bringing stillbirth claims to a successful conclusion and securing meaningful compensation for bereaved families. His past cases include:
Mrs A’s first pregnancy was straightforward until around 27 weeks gestation when she vomited blood and noted reduced foetal movements. She attended hospital and was given medication to stop her vomiting. She was sent home. She experienced the same symptoms four weeks later and returned to hospital. A urine sample was taken and sent for analysis. The midwives failed to perform an ultrasound scan or a CTG. Mrs A developed abdominal pains, high temperature, rapid pulse and high blood pressure. Despite a CTG showing reduced foetal movement, her care was not prioritised, and her baby was delivered stillborn. Mrs A developed depression. Multiple missed opportunities to investigate and intervene were admitted by the hospital.
Compensation of £40,000 was secured.
Mrs B’s pregnancy was escalated for consultant-led care due to worsening asthma. Serial ultrasound growth scans were performed which revealed increased foetal growth velocity. She was referred for early induction to try to minimise the risk of shoulder dystocia because her baby was big. Documentation and advice given to pregnant women about delivery methods did not include information about the risk of stillbirth or neonatal death as a result of shoulder dystocia. Mrs B elected for vaginal delivery but, sadly, her baby was stillborn after suffering hypoxic brain injury due to shoulder dystocia. Mrs B developed depression.
It was established that if properly advised Mrs B would have chosen caesarean section and her baby would have lived.
Compensation of £35,000 was secured.
Miss C experienced multiple breaches of duty in the management of her pregnancy including the failure to perform a 40 week growth scan and the failure to treat an E.coli urinary tract infection. These failures meant that late onset growth restriction went undetected, and the UTI progressed to acute chorioamnionitis which caused hypoxia and led to intrauterine death. Miss C developed adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood.
It was established that but for these failures of care the baby would have lived.
Compensation of £40,000 was secured.
Mrs D was pregnant for the fourth time. She required cervical cerclage. Following placement of the cervical cerclage, she developed vaginal discomfort, vaginal loss and reduced foetal movements. A high vaginal swab revealed E.coli infection. After a delay, antibiotics were administered. Whilst Mrs D’s symptoms eased, foetal growth was subsequently noted to slow but was not acted upon. She had a spontaneous rupture of membranes and attended hospital where monitoring was commenced but there was a failure to act to escalate care and expedite delivery. Intrauterine death occurred. Postmortem confirmed that the cause of death was chorioamnionitis.
It was argued that there were multiple failures of care and that, but for these failures, the baby would have lived.
Compensation of £43,000 was secured.
Mrs E had a spontaneous rupture of membranes at 32+4 weeks gestation of her first pregnancy. A urine test was positive for E.coli. The plan was for antibiotics to be given and for transfer to a labour ward at a local hospital specialised in the care of preterm babies. Following transfer, no antibiotics were given and she was discharged home with advice to return to the original hospital for follow up, despite no appointment having been made. That evening, Mrs E noted vaginal bleeding and no foetal movements. She returned to hospital where intrauterine death was confirmed.
It was asserted that Mrs E should have been admitted for close observations and antibiotic treatment and that, but for the failures of care, her baby would have lived, and she would not have sustained psychological injury.
Compensation of £46,000 was secured.
Compensation of £1.15m for a wrongful birth claim where a radiological failure to identify the absence of the corpus collosum before birth led to the delivery of a disabled child with significant lifelong requirements.
The above cases have been annonymised to protect the claimants’ privacy.
