Birth Injury Claims

Birth injury claims include the following:

• Cerebral Palsy
• Erb’s Palsy
• Stillbirth and Neonatal Deaths
• Hypoxic Ischaemic Brain Injuries
• Perineal Tear Injuries
• Wrongful Birth

Birth injuries can be caused by a number of factors including:

• Failure to adequately monitor and manage maternal health conditions during pregnancy e.g. gestational diabetes, infection, placental complications, pre-eclampsia. 
• Failure to adequately monitor fetal development during pregnancy e.g. failure to perform or act upon serial growth scans, failure to offer caesarean section.
• Failure to adequately monitor fetal condition during labour and delivery e.g. failure to respond to signs of fetal distress resulting in oxygen deprivation before birth causing 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 to progress to caesarean section following a long delivery. 
• 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 impact on both mother and baby. The specialist medical negligence team at O’Donnell Solicitors has extensive experience in working with clients to identify the issues with the care that they have received, working to understand the extent of the injury and loss suffered, and ensuring that compensation is recovered to provide for any future needs.