Pregnancy Injuries – recently, we published a blog that highlighted the unfortunate injuries that can occur to babies during birth. You can read that blog here.
Birth injuries to children are fortunately very rare. However, women are the ones who more commonly suffer injuries during childbirth.
Even with the best of care, childbirth has its risks. If you have a natural vaginal childbirth, chances are you will suffer some sort of injury during delivery such as a tear, a bleed or scarring. Likewise, a planned or emergency caesarean section carries risks of infection and surgical injury.
It is widely accepted that the majority of these injuries are unavoidable and come hand in hand with childbearing. However, there numerous cases in which these injuries have been negligently caused by doctors and/or midwives by failing to exercise an acceptable standard of treatment and determining whether a woman’s injuries sustained during pregnancy have been negligently caused is not a straightforward enquiry. This is because there are many factors that guide Obstetricians in deciding how to proceed with delivering a child. These include:
- The result of previous pregnancies;
- Any complicating factors in your antenatal care;
- The size of the baby;
- The position of the baby prior to delivery;
- The health and general condition of the baby;
- The mother’s health; and
- Resources, facilities and equipment available to the staff.
How do we determine negligence?
It clear that childbirth carries an inherent risk of harm to the mother. Therefore determining what constitutes negligence care is often difficult.
The way we determine negligence is by first requesting a complete copy of the mother’s medical records. Once these records have been obtained, we provide them to an independent expert to comment on whether they consider treatment and care provided to the mother was negligent.If this independent expert believes that the treatment and care provided was negligent, then we will be able to bring a claim on their behalf.
Why bring a claim for pregnancy injuries?
Injuries sustained during childbirth are incredibly personal and significantly impact a women’s quality of life.
Common injuries include:
- Excessive tearing;
- Urinary and faecal incontinence;
- Bladder dysfunction;
- Sexual dysfunction;
- Bleeding or haemorrhaging;
- Lower limb impairments;
- Nerve damage;
- Fistulas;
- Ongoing pain and soreness;
- Uterine injuries; and
- Psychological Injuries.
These types of injuries have long-term effects that can impact a woman’s personal relationships, ability to care for her child, ability to return to work and her mental health.
How can we help?
We successfully deal with numerous claims for women who have sustained injuries during childbirth. We have found that no two cases are ever the same and each case requires careful investigation and the correct experts. We take pride in preparing these claims to the highest standard to ensure that women are compensated for the issues caused by these injuries.
For further information about Medical Negligence claims, contact Stacks Goudkamp on 1800 251 800 or enquire online.
