Born in Better Care

It is estimated that one in four pregnancies in the UK end in loss during pregnancy or birth – something which reaches far beyond the loss of life to have a severe and long-lasting impact on parents, partners and families. 

Parents too often come home from hospital without their newborn child, whilst others return with a baby in need of lifelong, round-the-clock care. Mothers can also suffer physical and psychological injuries too.

The avoidable traumatic loss of life, and life-long impact of birth negligence, remains too common across the UK.

At Hudgell Solicitors, we are determined to provide the best possible support parents and advocate for improved maternity services – benefitting both patients and those who work on maternity wards across the UK.

Understanding the causes of serious birth Injuries in the UK

Much work is being done to better understand why babies die or suffer a severe brain injury because of complications during labour.

Research released in 2020 found that 75% of babies experienced a severe head injury. There were 121 intrapartum stillbirths (11%), and a further 165 babies (14%) who were born alive following labour but died within seven days of birth.

Safer maternity care and reducing the number of avoidable injuries or deaths to mothers and babies has been a major Government priority since 2010, In July 2021, a £2.45m funding package was announced to benefit NHS maternity staff and improve the safety of the women and babies they care for.

The Government’s maternity safety ambition is to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths as well as the number of neonatal and maternal deaths by 2025. By the same year, they are also committed to reducing the number of brain injuries that occur at the time of birth or soon after.

Birth Injury Survey 2021

As we are passionate about improving maternity care for all, at Hudgell Solicitors we commissioned a YouGov survey of parents in July 2021, as a joint piece of research with Baby Lifeline, to ask how well supported they felt during their last pregnancy, and how their concerns were dealt with by health professionals.

We wanted to give a voice to mothers and partners across the UK, asking if they felt like they were listened to, whether they felt empowered to speak up and raise their concerns, and what barriers may have prevented them from speaking out.

The survey aimed to provide a better understanding of any issues that might be present around pregnancy and birth for expectant parents, especially in terms of them truly having a voice in what is for most, the biggest event in their lives.

Download the results of our Birth Injury Survey 2021 here.

Campaigning with Baby Lifeline for continued improvement on maternity wards

Hudgell Solicitors is proud to have worked in partnership with the national mother and baby charity Baby Lifeline for a number of years, sponsoring the National Maternity Safety Conference in both 2020 and 2021.

Together we have campaigned to the Government, taking a petition to Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Number 10 Downing Street in 2020 to call for the reinstatement of the Maternity Training Fund.

We have also supported Baby Lifeline in calling for standardised maternity training across the UK, and in fundraising for new baby monitoring equipment across the UK.

Supporting Baby Loss Awareness Week

Baby Loss Awareness Week was created in 2002 to raise awareness, give information and provide support to bereaved parents and their families.

It is staged every October to support bereaved parents and families, uniting them with others across the world to commemorate their babies’ lives and lost pregnancies.

It seeks to raise awareness about pregnancy and baby loss and to drive improvements in care and support for anyone affected.

Organisations and charities involved look to facilitate remembrance and work with health professionals and services to improve bereavement care and reduce preventable deaths.

Our team at Hudgell Solicitors passionately supports Baby Loss Awareness Week each year, taking the opportunity to help our clients share their stories to help others, and to direct people to local charities and organisations which can help them.