What pregnancy & birth injury claims do we deal with?
Pregnancy & birth claim types
- Birth Injury
- Brachial Plexus
- Cerebral Palsy
- Ectopic Pregnancy
- Endometriosis Misdiagnosis
- Erb’s Palsy
- Failed Vasectomy & Sterilisations
- Gestational Diabetes
- Hip Dysplasia
- Obstetrics & Gynaecology Negligence
- Perineal & Vaginal Labour Tears
- Root Cause Analysis (Serious Incident Reports)
- Stillbirth & Neonatal
- Wrongful Birth
No win, no fee pregnancy & birth compensation
You can be represented by a highly-experienced pregnancy & birth lawyer at no upfront cost to you. Under our No Win, No Fee agreement you only pay a pre-agreed percentage of the compensation awarded if your case is successful.
Specialist pregnancy and birth injury legal support
Pregnancy can be both an exciting and worrying time for expectant parents, and sadly, although the vast majority of cases are trouble-free and end with a healthy mother and baby, there are times when things go wrong, resulting in injuries.
We have a hugely experienced team of medical negligence solicitors at Hudgell Solicitors who have supported many families through legal claims when errors by medical staff have caused lifelong injuries to babies, including Cerebral Palsy and Erb’s palsy.
We have also supported parents whose children have sadly been stillborn or died shortly after birth, again due to failings in healthcare provision on maternity wards.
Our team always offers sympathetic support, whilst ensuring we do all we can to investigate the circumstances of your case, and get answers as to what went wrong.
In cases for families bringing up children with life-long and life-limiting injuries, compensation can provide the financial means to help your child long term and improve their quality of life for all, through dedicated care, home adaptations, rehabilitation and specialist equipment.
Supporting families after stillbirth and neonatal death
We know nothing we do can ever lessen the devastation of losing a child during pregnancy and birth, but we passionately believe in using the legal process to help find answers in situations where parents consider that the death was due to medical negligence and therefore avoidable.
Our role is to investigate the events which led to a baby’s death, seek clear answers as to why the life was lost and, if necessary, hold those responsible to account.
Successful stillbirth compensation claims can provide vital access to therapy, counselling or support and our involvement often leads to changes being made and extra training being provided on maternity wards.
Pregnancy related compensation claims
Negligent care during pregnancy could lead to issues for the mother and/or baby further on in the pregnancy or during labour and birth.
Examples we see commonly at Hudgell Solicitors include errors during maternity appointments about monitoring the baby, failing to diagnose abnormalities, or making errors about the medication prescribed to the mother.
Common errors include failing to diagnose and treat ectopic pregnancies, where a fertilised egg implants outside of the womb and can rupture causing bleeding, and pre-eclampsia, which causes high blood pressure during pregnancy and can be serious if not treated.
Other pregnancy claims
Our legal team also have experience in leading claims related to unwanted pregnancies, including cases where people fall pregnant having taken a considered decision to prevent having children through having vasectomy and sterilisation procedures.
In such cases, compensation can often be claimed, against both NHS and private health providers, if it can be proved that surgical procedures were substandard and negligent, or in some cases where medical professionals have failed to provide appropriate advice.
Our team also has experience in leading wrongful birth compensation claims, in situations where babies are born with injuries or disabilities which doctors should have detected during pregnancy and informed the mother/parents at the time, and their failure to do so has denied them the opportunity to take the very difficult decision as to whether to continue with the pregnancy, or to elect to undergo a termination.
Hospital admits causing stillbirth of baby boy as midwives stopped monitoring heart rate and missed danger signs
A woman whose baby was stillborn due to mistakes midwives made during labour says she was ‘appalled’ by the lack of compassion shown – telling how she spiralled into depression and how the pain of losing her first child will never fade. Charlotte Warner, of Streatham, south London, was just 23 when she lost her […]
Parliamentary Inquiry: Zahra’s Birth Trauma Experience
Zahra was one of more than 20 clients of Hudgell Solicitors to experience birth trauma and submit a statement to the Parliamentary Birth Trauma Inquiry, describing her own experience, and the impact it had on her. Zahra said: I experienced a prolonged labour and should have had an emergency caesarean section to deliver my baby. […]
Parliamentary Inquiry: Beata’s Birth Trauma Experience
Beata was one of more than 20 clients of Hudgell Solicitors to submit a statement to the Parliamentary Birth Trauma Inquiry, describing her own experience, and the impact it had on her. Beata said: I lost my baby at full term despite having been to the hospital on many occasions with concerns due to continuing, […]
Judge rules midwives were negligent for failing to ensure a ‘controlled delivery’ of baby, causing serious injuries to mother
A Judge has ruled that a hospital trust was negligent in its care of a mother who suffered serious injuries when giving birth to her first child. The mother, who was 24 at the time, suffered a significant and life-threatening haemorrhage and multiple vaginal tears, including a third-degree internal perineal tear. Midwives at the hospital […]
£2.4m interim damages award is ‘life-changing’ for severely disabled 12-year-old as family can finally buy home they need
A High Court Judge’s ruling to award £2.4m interim damages to a severely disabled 12-year-old has been hailed as a ‘life-changing’ decision for the girl and her family following a struggle to find suitable accommodation. The Claimant sustained a hypoxic brain injury due to errors made during her birth, leaving her suffering from quadriplegic cerebral […]
Hudgell Solicitors secures £14.3m damages for boy left brain damaged after midwives failed to realise he was starved of oxygen at birth
A £14.3m damages settlement has been approved for a boy left brain damaged after midwives failed to properly monitor his heart rate during birth and therefore didn’t realise he was starved of oxygen. The boy, now 17, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, needed resuscitating after being born. The consequent brain injury means that […]
How to make a pregnancy & birth injury claim
Make a claim in six easy steps
Free Initial Advice
Call us, request a callback or complete our online claim form and we will assess whether we think you have a claim.
Funding
We will help you to decide how best to fund your claim. Usually, we will be able to offer you a No win, No fee agreement.
Obtain Medical Records & Medical Reports
We will request copies of your medical records and instruct appropriate medical experts to prepare reports confirming whether your care was negligent and how this caused you injury.
Letter Of Claim
We will send a letter to your healthcare provider with details of your claim, setting out why we think your case was negligent and how this caused you injury.
Prepare Claim Valuation
We will put together a schedule of loss setting out the losses you have incurred and the extent of the injuries you have sustained.
Negotiate Settlement
We will send all the evidence to your healthcare provider inviting their settlement proposals. If we cannot agree a reasonable settlement, we will prepare court proceedings.
Start your claim today
Feel free to give us a call or begin your claim online
Our client reviews
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FAQs
What are the time limits for making a pregnancy and birth injury claim?
The time limit for making a claim for medical negligence is 3 years from the date of your knowledge of the alleged negligence. (You may not realise straight away but only after your injury or illness becomes worse).
However, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule:
- Children – medical negligence claims involving a child can be made any time before your child turns 18. On your child’s 18th birthday the 3-year rule comes into effect, so a claim needs to be started before they turn 21.
- Mental Capacity– if a person lacks the capacity to make a claim themselves, there’s no time limit for making a claim.
How can Hudgells help me if I feel my treatment was negligent?
- Hudgell Solicitors has a highly experienced pregnancy and birth claims legal team that is supported by our own in-house medical experts – including a registered midwife – meaning we are able to fully assess cases and the standard of treatment provided.
- Our first involvement is to listen to your questions, provide some expert initial free advice, and discuss whether you want to start a birth negligence claim.
- There is no commitment when contacting us, but it will enable our lawyers to assess whether your case can be taken forward and inform you what the next steps will be.
- Should we feel we can pursue a compensation claim on your behalf, a specialist medical negligence lawyer will be assigned and dedicated to supporting you through your case. They will explain, in plain, non-legal language, what is likely to be needed from you at each stage of the process, including what evidence and information will need to be obtained.
- Should a case not be pursued, our discussions will always remain entirely confidential.
- Our representation sees us:
- Carry out initial fact-finding by discussing with you what happened, what went wrong and the impact it has had on your life.
- Inform the healthcare provider of our investigation into the care they provided, requesting relevant medical records and details of examinations and treatment.
- Seek independent medical opinion to determine whether a mother or child’s injuries could and should have been prevented, had the proper care and attention been given.
- Make a decision, based on evidence gathered, as to whether we are in a position to make an official claim for damages to compensate for the suffering and hardship caused.
- Should admissions of negligence be secured, consider an application for interim payments, should they be needed to cover the cost of any immediate needs for a child and family.
- Seek to negotiate a compensation settlement out of court which reflects the injury and loss caused, including damages to cover any future care and assistance required.
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Meet our pregnancy & birth injury lawyers
Local lawyers at the heart of your community
Vince Shore
Chris Moore
Maria Repanos
Michelle Tebbutt
Advice
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Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) brain injury
What is Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) and is it caused by maternity care negligence? When parents are told their newborn baby has suffered a brain injury at birth it is, of course, a hugely distressing and worrying time. Suddenly they are forced to contemplate a very different life ahead for themselves, their wider family and […]
Pregnancy, Childbirth and Informed Consent – what you need to know
During pregnancy and birth, healthcare professionals have a duty to provide a reasonable amount of information to an expectant mother, especially before and during labour. This helps expectant parents to make decisions with what’s referred to as ‘informed consent’, or ‘medical consent, before treatment is provided or procedures are carried out. During pregnancy and childbirth […]
Wrongful Births
The term wrongful birth is used when babies are born with injuries or disabilities which medical professionals should have detected during pregnancy. A failure to inform mothers/parents denies them the opportunity to take a very difficult decision as to whether to continue with the pregnancy. Listen to Samantha Darwin, a senior medical negligence solicitor, explain […]
Get in touch
Feel free to give us a call or begin your claim online