Medical Negligence ‘to Blame for Rising Rate of Stillbirths in UK’

Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors
January 27, 2012

Medical negligence is one of the main reasons behind the high rate of stillbirths and deaths within a few weeks of life, a new report has suggested.

According to the Guardian, a study carried out by charity Sands found that in 2010, 4,110 children were stillborn, while 1,850 died within the first couple of days of being born. In addition, some 507 died between one and four weeks of being born.

These figures haven’t changed much since the late 1990s, and the organisation stated that as many as 1,200 stillbirths or early deaths could be avoided every year.

Chief executive of the charity Neal Long said: “The scale of baby deaths in the UK is shocking. A third of stillborn babies – around 1,200 – are born late in pregnancy [after 37 weeks’ gestation], at gestations when they might safely be delivered. But routine antenatal care is failing to detect far too many babies who need help.”

With such substandard care occurring regularly in Britain, many families are seeking legal advice with a view to making a medical negligence compensation claim.

Why Make a Medical Negligence Compensation Claim?

When families go through a tragedy of losing a child, the last thing on their minds is understandably the stress of having to get involved with legal proceedings.

However, there is a wide range of benefits of seeking compensation if you believe an attending medical expert has been negligent during the pregnancy or delivery of a child.

Justice – Obviously no amount of money can ever compensate for the loss of a child, but recovering compensation can go a long way to improving the quality of life of someone who has suffered as a result of medical negligence. What’s more, it offers the chance to achieve justice by taking the negligent professional to court.
Reduced stress – While many think starting legal proceedings is more hassle than it’s worth, when you enlist the help of a specialist team of medical negligence solicitors you will usually find they make the process as efficient and stress-free as possible. They should explain to you in simple and easy-to-understand language the legal intricacies of the case, and regularly keep you up to date with developments with your claim.
Testimonials & case studies – The vast majority of law firms now have websites containing a wealth of information available for visitors, including customer testimonials and case studies. This is great news for those looking for a firm to take their case, so they can see the medical negligence claims they have worked on in the past, how much compensation they have managed to recover for clients and how happy their clients were with the legal services on offer.

A certain level of care and competency is expected of medical professionals, but unfortunately this is not always met. For that reason, medical negligence claims remain a great source of comfort for the many people affected by mistakes by attending physicians or midwives.