Birth Injury Claims Solicitors

Our birth injury lawyers have the specialist knowledge and expertise to build a strong medical negligence claim for you and will help guide and support you when bringing a claim. Whilst we can't turn back the clock, the financial compensation achieved from a successful birth injury claim settlement can help ease the burden and cover the costs of immediate and future care or equipment for families who have been affected.

Some children are severely disabled from birth and require care for life. This means that they may have a physical or neurological injury of varying severity. Cerebral Palsy and Erb's Palsy caused by clinical negligence are some of our biggest cases. Settlements for a birth injuries case can help claimants pay for long-term physical therapy, rehabilitation or modifications to the home required for your children as they grow up.

A mother who is injured during birth can suffer pain and ongoing problems, or may need surgery because of the damage caused by the negligence.

As accredited birth injury solicitors and clinical negligence specialists with the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Accreditation Scheme and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, we understand all the implications of birth injury claims in all circumstances. Together with carefully chosen medical professionals, we can properly assess and support cases to achieve suitable compensation for your loved ones.

While there is no definitive answer to this question, most birth injury claims we have managed on behalf of injured mothers are settled in between two and five years.

However, for injuries to babies resulting in long-term conditions such as Cerebral Palsy or Erb’s Palsy, it can take significantly longer to reach a final settlement. We often have to wait until the child grows up to establish the full impact of their injuries, and consequently determine a fair value of birth injury compensation.

Other factors that can influence the duration of a birth injury claim are the time it takes to receive expert medical reports and whether the Defendants admit liability early or not.

Yes, you could receive interim payments before you or your loved one’s birth injury case reaches final settlement if the Defendant’s liability is proved early on.

Interim payments are subtracted from the total compensation you receive at the end of your claim, and enable you to cover the costs of therapies, treatments, medical aids, and other care you or your loved one requires until the claim is concluded.

This is why working with a true birth injury claims specialist like Gadsby Wicks is so important. In these cases, we always prioritise proving liability as soon as possible, so you can receive the financial support you need in the quickest possible time.

Yes. Like all medical negligence claims, there is a three-year time limit to start a birth injury claim. However, there are exceptions to this rule:

In certain circumstances, the courts may allow birth injury claims from outside this time limit. If your birth injury happened longer than three years ago, we can advise on whether your claim is likely to be considered.

If your birth injury claim is successful, you will receive compensation for the injury inflicted, split between general and special damages. The amount of compensation you receive as a settlement will depend on the severity of the injury and the financial losses this caused or will cause you or your loved one in the future.

Future financial losses commonly include loss of earnings and costs of care. For instance, if as a result of a preventable birth injury your child will require ongoing care and specialist treatment for the remainder of their life, these costs will be factored into the compensation awarded.

Birth injury compensation can also account for increased insurance costs, cancellation fees for cancelled holidays, cost of aid, equipment and travel to appointments. When bringing a claim, we will discuss these details with you to ensure all financial aspects are included.

As specialist birth injury claims solicitors, we have the expertise to build a stronger case than solicitors with less experience, especially in complex claims such as those involving Cerebral Palsy and Erb’s Palsy. This helps us accurately value your claim and efficiently negotiate a settlement.

Probably not. At Gadsby Wicks, 96% of our medical negligence cases are settled before court proceedings, meaning it is highly unlikely you will need to go to court at any stage.

However, we will always prepare you and your claim for the possibility of going to court. This includes coaching you on how to act in court and during cross-examinations, and arranging introductions between you and your selected barristers.

Yes. At Gadsby Wicks, we offer No Win, No Fee Agreements (also known as Conditional Fee Agreements) for all birth injury claimants.

This guarantees that unless we win your case, you owe us nothing at all. Plus, our success fee comes out of your compensation, so you’re never in any financial risk.

No, making a birth injury claim does not directly hurt the NHS. Compensation is not taken directly from hospital operating budgets, but it is instead paid by NHS Resolution – a separate body that acts as the NHS’s insurer.

In many ways, making a birth injury claim helps the NHS improve patient safety. Mistakes highlight high-risk areas, allowing the NHS to update procedures and training to prevent similar incidents in future.

Despite what others may think about negligence claims, in our experience, the hospitals and teams involved in these types of cases genuinely want people to get the compensation they need following an incident, and actually work with us to establish a fair outcome.

According to the latest data from NHS Resolution, birth injury claims (referred to as obstetric claims) represented 11.2% of all clinical negligence claims in 2024/2025 – a decline from 12.8% in 2023/2024.

NHS Resolution’s data closely aligns with our own birth injury claims data in Essex and East Anglia. In 2024/2025, 10.2% of all claims we represented were birth injury claims – a slight decline from 13.7% in 2023.

This indicates that birth injury claims are rarer than other forms of negligence claims, and that recent trends suggest that there are fewer incidents both here in Essex and across the UK.

However, while birth injury claims are less abundant than other types of claims, they are often among the most valuable:

• According to NHS Resolution, obstetrics claims accounted for 52.5% of total medical negligence compensation awarded in 2024/2025 (£3.5 billion)
• According to our own data at Gadsby Wicks, birth injury claims accounted for 31.6% of our total estimated claims value in 2024/2025

For more information, please check out our up-to-date medical negligence claims statistics.

Yes, our birth injury solicitors and medical lawyers are highly proficient in presenting a case for pregnancy-related birth injuries. 

Complications during pregnancy, such as placenta praevia, placenta abruption, anaemia and preeclampsia, can limit the oxygen and nutrient supply to a foetus, which can lead to birth defects or the death of the child. 

Similar complications of varying severity can also negatively impact the short and long-term safety and welfare of the mother.

If signs of these and similar types of complications are missed by medical professionals during appointments and check-ups, treatment is applied too late, or the condition is misdiagnosed and the wrong treatment is applied, we can help you through every step of making a pregnancy birth injury claim.

A traumatic birth injury is a physical or psychological injury to the mother that occurs during or shortly after childbirth, and is often a more distressing or frightening experience than other injuries.

Factors that make traumatic birth injuries more likely to lead to a birth injury claim include:

• A lengthy or particularly painful experience in labour
• Mothers not receiving the correct amount of pain relief
• Cuts, bruises and fractures suffered by the mother or the baby during delivery
• Emergency Caesarean sections
• The unforeseen use of instruments like forceps to assist the birth
• Poor or impersonal care given to the mother before, during and after the birth

A traumatic birth injury may not only have physical consequences, but may also result in the mother suffering from postnatal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

If you have suffered birth trauma due to the inattentive or inappropriate care of your medical professionals, we can help you claim birth injury compensation. Use our online form to start a claim, request a callback, or contact our team.

Yes, you can make a birth injury claim for a perineal tear if this injury was caused or affected by a negligent act by your doctor, midwife or another healthcare professional.

While up to 90% of first-time mothers will experience a tear or graze through vaginal birth, there are instances where poor care leads to preventable or more severe damage. This can include high-risk factors that weren’t taken into account before birth, taking too long to diagnose a tear, not identifying or treating a perineal tear after delivery, or not diagnosing/acting upon signs of infection.

If you believe a tear you suffered during childbirth could have been prevented, reach out to our birth injury claims solicitors for specialist advice.

We know how devastating a birth injury can be, both for those directly affected and those closest to them. If you or someone you know is struggling after a birth injury to themselves or their loved ones, here are some national and local support groups you can contact in Essex:

Cerebral Palsy and oxygen starvation at birth support groups

SNAP Charity: Practical and emotional support for Essex families with children (0-25) who have disabilities or additional needs, including Cerebral Palsy.

Peeps HIE: The UK’s dedicated charity for families affected by hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (oxygen starvation at birth).

Scope: A nationwide disability charity with strong Cerebral Palsy resources, helpline and community.

Headway: Support for families in Essex dealing with neurological and physical injuries.

Erb’s Palsy and shoulder dystocia support groups

Erb’s Palsy Group: A UK charity for children and adults living with Erb’s Palsy and similar brachial plexus injuries.

Stillbirth and neonatal death support groups

Sands: The UK’s leading pregnancy and baby loss charity offering local peer support for bereaved families.

By Your Side: Essex-based perinatal mental health and baby loss therapy, including trauma-focused support.

Tommy’s: A well-respected national baby loss support helpline and online community.

Ectopic pregnancy support groups

Ectopic Pregnancy Trust: A dedicated charity offering a helpline, email counselling and peer support for parents struggling after an ectopic pregnancy.

Perineal tear and maternal birth trauma support groups

Birth Trauma Association: A UK-wide charity supporting women with PTSD and trauma from childbirth.

The MASIC Foundation: The only UK charity dedicated to supporting women with severe perineal injuries (OASI).