Our clinical negligence team have worked with many families who have sadly suffered baby loss; we support them through their grief and with seeking justice for what they and their child have gone through. The process of bringing a clinical negligence claim can be an upsetting and difficult process but we have witnessed the benefit that it can have for bereaved families by getting answers as to what happened and why and also by obtaining compensation in order to arrange specialist private psychological treatment.

This was very much the case for Megan, a client we have worked with and for whom we have been able to successfully bring a claim. At 38+2 weeks of her pregnancy and during labour, Megan suffered intrapartum stillbirth, which is when a baby dies after labour has begun; through the process of bringing a claim, it was able to be established that this was avoidable, had she received appropriate care from the Hospital.

At 37+5 weeks, Megan had attended the Hospital having suspected that her waters had broken; this however was not recognised at the time. The midwifes were having difficulties with categorising the heart rate of the baby and so Megan was transferred to the antenatal ward to begin a CTG, which is a monitor that is applied to check heart rate and contractions. This was deemed normal and Megan was discharged and told to monitor her contractions at home and seek further help when they were every 5 minutes.

Megan continued to have irregular contractions, which she described as painful and she continued to lose clear fluid. As the contractions were not every 5 minutes as advised by the midwives, Megan did not seek medical help until they became more frequent.

Megan attended the Hospital at 38+2 weeks with a plan for a waterbirth. Whilst in the birthing pool, it was found that the fetal heart rate could not be detected and Megan was transferred to labour ward, where her daughter was sadly stillborn.

Megan’s daughter underwent a postmortem, which found that she had suffered severe acute chorioamnionitis, which is a serious infection of the membranes and the amniotic fluid. This would have been avoided, had Megan received appropriate care when she had attended at 37+5 weeks, namely had it been recognised that her waters had broken.

Megan struggled severely after the sad passing of her baby. This resulted in a suicide attempt, breakdown of her relationships with her family and her partner, and a long recovery.

Williamsons however were able to obtain admissions from the Hospital Trust of the failings in the care provided, as well as securing a written apology to Megan for what had happened. This of course does not change what happened to her daughter but acknowledgment of failings provided some comfort to Megan.

Funds were obtained as part of the claim so that Megan could arrange the necessary counselling with a specialist counsellor relating to trauma. Megan found this extremely beneficial, helping her to develop coping strategies and to get her to be motivated with her life. Megan began engaging with her partner and family and is slowly recovering from the tragic events.

We recognise that these tragic losses are too great to be measured in monetary terms; however, the process of bringing a claim has helped Megan to have access to the medical help that she needed to grieve her daughter and rebuild her life.

Megan is also eager that other mum’s going through similar circumstances should know that there is support out there for them to build a more positive future and honour the memories of their children; she raised that she felt extremely isolated as she did not know of anyone else who had suffered an intrapartum stillbirth and she hopes, through telling her story, other mums will know that they are not alone.