Medical Negligence* – Birth Injuries to Mothers
Women give birth every day and thankfully for the vast majority this will be a joyful time. Unfortunately some women suffer injuries from complications in birth, particularly where a difficult birth may require an emergency caesarean, forceps delivery or episiotomy.
Some birth injuries are mild and unavoidable such as light bruising. Others birth injuries are more serious, such as tears, caesarean section or perineal infections. More often than not these injuries are natural consequence of the labour process and occur despite the high standard of medical care you have received from your medical team.
In a small number of cases, however, injuries can occur if the delivery of your baby or your aftercare has not been properly managed by the doctors, midwives and hospital looking after you. When such injuries occur, and it is clear the hospital staff did not provide the proper level of care, you can bring a claim for compensation for the birth injury.
The types of injuries that occur include:
· Nerve damage
· Ruptured uterus
· Injury to bladder, bowel or uterus during delivery
· Failure to remove instruments or swabs
· Incontinence
· Maternal death
· Complications involving forceps delivery
· Post-traumatic stress disorder
Symptoms may include pain, urinary and faeces incontinence, flatulence (wind) and painful sexual intercourse. These injuries not only affect you but may also impact on your family. You may be reluctant to discuss your symptoms, believing that they may be a necessary part of childbirth or feel that they are too embarrassing to discuss. You may be confused about what happened and why. We believe you should not suffer in silence. We will treat you with compassion and sensitivity and advise you in very clear terms so that you can find out if your care has been substandard and whether you should bring a claim for compensation.
Birth injuries fall into a specialist area of medical negligence law. They require an experienced legal team to deal with all aspects of these often complex and demanding cases.
We at Patrick J Farrell and Company will help you. We will obtain your medical records and guide you through the legal process. We engage barristers and experts with experience in dealing with medical negligence cases and in particular birth injuries.
If you would like advice regarding an injury suffered while giving birth, please contact us. We will listen to your account of what happened and advise you fully in relation to any claim you might have.
