When negligent maternity care causes a mother’s death
In 2015 the government pledged to halve the number of incidents involving mothers dying during a pregnancy or in the weeks after giving birth by
8th October 2026
If your child was injured before, during or shortly after their birth, they may be left with lifelong health issues and the need for a lot of specialist support. The full effects of a birth injury can take several years to become clear, but you should start planning for how you will meet your child’s needs as soon as possible. That way, you can be sure you will have the right support in place when they need it.
As a parent of a child with complex needs, providing the support they need can be really challenging. As well as needing to pay for specialist equipment, treatment and other costs, it’s common for parents to give up work to care for their children full-time, adding to the financial strain on their family.
Claiming compensation is often the only way to cover these costs and give your child the quality of care and chance at the happy life that they deserve. It can also help to relieve the financial strain on your family and fund professional care support, so you can focus on being a parent, not a carer.
No parent wants to face a situation like this, and it is normal to be confused and intimidated by the idea of making a compensation claim. Getting clear legal advice now can help make your situation clearer, give you the confidence to make the best choices for your child and increase your chances of securing fair compensation to meet your child’s needs.
To arrange a confidential consultation with our friendly, highly experienced birth injury solicitors, please call 01253 766 559 or email **@*******co.uk today.
To start a compensation claim today, or for more information simply complete the form below.
There are two sides to dealing with a birth injury claim – getting to grips with the legal complexities and coping with the emotional impact on you and your loved ones. You, therefore, need a legal representative who offers exceptional legal skills, steely determination and a track record of success for families like yours, but also close personal support to see you through this difficult time.
Diane Rostron is one of the leading birth injury lawyers in England and Wales. Widely respected for her successful handling of complex and high-value birth injury cases, Diane’s expertise has also been recognised by the Law Society with a prestigious Clinical Negligence accreditation.
She is also recognised as a leading practitioner in England and Wales in Legal 500 which describes her as “committed, determined and sympathetic.”
With more than 20 years of specialist birth injury experience, Diane regularly secures multi-million-pound settlements for families like yours, including where other solicitors have previously failed. Recently, Diane won £17.9 million in damages for a seven-year-old child injured at birth.
It’s not just this track record of success and her exceptional legal skills that sets Diane apart, though. We hear time and again how much clients value Diane’s warmth and empathy, as well as the way she makes claiming compensation simpler and less stressful. No matter how challenging your situation, Diane Rostron will be there with you every step of the way.
Over the years, Diane has secured substantial compensation for birth injuries such as:
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Your child will be entitled to compensation for an injury at birth if their injury was caused by medical negligence by the team handling their birth.
Medical negligence is where the standard of care given falls below acceptable clinical standards. In other words, mistakes were made that no competent medical professional would have made in the same circumstances.
This will depend on factors including how severe your child’s injuries are, their specific needs and the cost of meeting those needs. For serious birth injuries, the available compensation can run into millions of pounds.
Birth injury compensation can be used for any costs connected with your child’s injury, including paying for medical treatment, 24-hour care support, home adaptations and specialist equipment. It can also be used for covering basic living costs.
Birth injury claims will normally be both complicated and difficult to prove, with the average claim taking several years to resolve. They tend to be strongly defended by NHS trusts and other birth care providers due to the high value of the compensation sought and the complexity involved.
To give your child the best chance of a successful claim, you, therefore, need to make sure all of the right evidence is collected from the outset, including medical records, witness testimony and independent medical evaluations. As your claim may go to court, you will also need an exceptional legal advocate to represent you.
After you get in touch with us, we will listen to you and discuss your situation, including the healthcare advice you were given, and any evidence of negligent treatment.
We will need to apply for your medical records from various places, including the place you had treatment, other hospitals, and your GP practice.
We will then provide an honest assessment of whether we think you have a claim worth further investigation. We will explain the claims process and the fees involved.
We will start collecting evidence to support your claim. This typically includes applying for any further medical records, other documents from the hospital, obtaining witness statements and independent medical experts’ reports.
Once the facts of the case are clear, we will contact the NHS Trust or healthcare provider to inform them a claim is being investigated. The Letter of Claim (LOC) will set out the details of the alleged medical negligence and the injuries caused.
The Defendant is required to respond to our Letter of Claim (LOC) within four months. At this stage, they will either accept full, or partial, liability and may offer a financial settlement, or deny responsibility.
If the Defendant denies responsibility, or does not offer a sufficient settlement amount, we can then issue court proceedings on your behalf to take the claim further. The Defendant will be given 28 days to respond, and the court will then set a hearing date, usually around 18 months from when proceedings are initiated.
It is important to note that while issuing court proceedings is an essential step, it is rare that you will need to attend a hearing as most claims that reach this stage can be resolved with a pre-trial settlement.
The Court will then set a timetable for the exchange of evidence in the case. We will exchange any witness statement taken from you, and receive the witness statements (if any), of the clinicians involved in your care.
There will then be an exchange of medical expert evidence. Each party can obtain independent medical expert reports in each relevant discipline. For example, in a birth injury claim, both parties would have commissioned reports from independent obstetricians. We disclose the report we have obtained on your behalf and the Defendant has to disclose the report they have obtained.
The independent experts then have a meeting, separate to each party’s legal representatives, to narrow the issues for the Judge in the event the case goes to a trial. After this meeting, the medical experts have to produce a jointly written statement to provide to the Judge.
It is usual procedure to attend some form of pre-trial settlement resolution with the Defendant, either in the form of a settlement meeting, or a mediation. We have a very strong track record of negotiating pre-trial settlements and will explore every potential avenue to do so if your claim reaches this stage.
If your claim settles at this stage and involves a vulnerable party, such as a child or an adult with a brain injury, an approval hearing will be held by a High Court Judge to approve the settlement reached.
If your claim cannot be resolved outside a court hearing, we can offer experienced, and highly skilled, advocacy to secure the best possible outcome for your family.
Most claims are resolved in full through the above process. However, very complex claims, including birth injury claims, require an additional step to assess the quantification (value) of the claim.
For birth injury claims, additional independent medical experts will be required to assess issues such as life expectancy and care needs, and the process above will be repeated for the stage of quantification.
In 2015 the government pledged to halve the number of incidents involving mothers dying during a pregnancy or in the weeks after giving birth by
Diane Rostron has been ranked amongst the top clinical negligence law firms in the North West for the eighth consecutive year in industry bible Legal
A three day inquest begins today, Monday 14th September at 10am at the Blackpool Coroner’s Court, into the death of eight day old Richard George
For families in Bradford who have experienced serious harm during pregnancy, childbirth or neonatal care, the publication of the Bradford maternity review – as part
Complex birth injuries specialist, 30 years' expertise. Recognised by Legal 500 as leading expert.
One in five baby deaths 'potentially avoidable', review finds
www.bbc.co.uk
An annual Oxford University-led review investigates the deaths of more than 4,000 babies in 2025.
Birth Injury Solicitors | Diane Rostron
www.dianerostron.co.uk
Diane Rostron is a specialist medical negligence solicitor with more than twenty years experience of dealing with the most complicated birth injury claims.