Pregnancy Related Claims
Reasons to choose Wilson Browne
- Direct access to your legal team
- Law Society and AVMA Panel approved
- Legal Aid funding***
- ***in certain cases
- No Win No Fee available**
- **subject to assessment
Most women have no problems whilst they are pregnant…
…but this is a time when women can be at risk with certain medical conditions and sometimes poor treatment of the mother can also lead to an injury to the child
We have had some experience in assisting clients with claims involving the following:
Birth defect and wrongful birth claim
Sometimes birth defect tests are not carried out appropriately or not at all or can be misread leading to a misdiagnosis. If this results in a baby being born with a serious health condition which had the parents been made aware of they may have chosen not to proceed with the pregnancy. In this situation it is possible to pursue a claim for compensation.
Failed sterilisation claims
It may be possible in certain circumstances to pursue a claim for compensation where a man or women despite being sterilised have gone on to conceive another child.
Fertility and IVF negligence claims
The main areas where negligence can occur are:
- Loss or destruction of embryos or sperm
- Failure to screen appropriately
- Surgical negligence causing reduced fertility
Misdiagnosed miscarriage claims
An ectopic pregnancy is when the embryo attaches to the outside of the womb often in the fallopian tube. If left untreated the fallopian tube can burst causing bleeding and this can be potentially fatal for the mother.
The symptoms for an ectopic pregnancy are stomach pain and vaginal bleeding.
Falling to diagnose Pre-Eclampsia
This is a medical condition that can only occur during pregnancy. Common symptoms include raised blood pressure, headaches, blurred vision, dizziness and reduced foetal developments.
It can usually be detected through increased levels of protein within the mother’s urine.
Pre-eclampsia affects the placenta in the womb and causes poor blood supply through the placenta to the baby. This in turn provides less oxygen and nutrients to the baby and can therefore affect the growth and development of the unborn baby.
The condition generally occurs during the third trimester of the pregnancy. If diagnosed it can be managed successfully. However failure to diagnose can cause serious medical complications for mother and baby.
Inappropriate use of Forceps or Ventouse
Forceps or ventouse are delivery tools and can be used to deliver a baby where there are complications during childbirth.
It is very important that the forceps or ventouse are used correctly so as to avoid injury to both baby and mother.
If too much pressure is applied when using the forceps which are placed on the baby’s head to ease delivery then it is possible to cause damage to the baby such as:
- facial nerve damage
- skull fractures
- cerebral palsy
- brain damage
For the mother again if the forceps delivery is not managed appropriately then she is at risk of suffering multiple injuries such as:
- vaginal tears
- injury to the rectum
- injury to the urinary tract
Stillbirth
Sadly not all pregnancies result in a healthy baby being born. The stillbirth rate remains high in this country. A stillbirth is a baby born dead at later than 24 weeks gestational age. The main reasons for stillbirth are:-
In a high number of cases stillbirth would be preventable if there had been closer monitoring of the pregnant woman.
- abnormalities
- hypoxia
- immaturity
- trauma
- infection
- poor antenatal screening
