childbirth negligenceWhen a woman plans to have a baby probably the last thing on her mind is labour. When it is decided that it is the right to have a baby the first thing is to actually get pregnant. Some men and women find this process easier than other and often the longer it takes a man and women the more stressed and anxious they get which in turn can in itself slow the process down. Once the couple are actually pregnant and after the initial excitement of ‘we are having a baby’ is over the worries soon set in. These can often consist of firstly many of hours of worrying whether the pregnancy will go ok and a healthy baby will develop to will we be able to cope once our baby is actually here. Fears and worries over a healthy pregnancy and baby can subside if the couple’s scan and tests come back that everything is fine. As the delivery date finally approaches thoughts about the delivery bombard the thinking atmosphere. As you can see here womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/childbirth with also the stages of labour.

Pregnancy and child birth is one of the most miraculous events in life. It is one of the most important parts of a person’s life and is treasured. With the actual labour though can come fear of pain and is sometimes considered daunting with a tinge of anxiety. People are well aware that even the easiest of deliveries some pain can be felt. And as we all have different kinds of pain thresholds and our pain levels can’t actually be measure and compared it is hard to say who’s in more pain than whom. Many years back, before the 1930,s there wasn’t pain relief given to women so it is easy to say that over the years with the introduction to gas and air in 1933 by Dr R J Minnitt labouring pain is more manageable. Most of the time once the baby is delivered all pain is forgotten at the sight of new life that has been brought into the world. Even after the delivery the new parents’ worry continues but this time it may even be enticed more as their love grows for the baby and they are the ones who need to protect and care for the baby.

Doctors and midwives every day deliver baby’s in hospitals and even homes all around the world. Many years ago women would stay at home to have their baby’s as this was the done thing and usually a neighbour or someone in the area known for delivering baby’s would help when the time came for the women to deliver. Now most women deliver in hospital under the watchful eye of a midwife and in some circumstances a doctor. There has also been an increase in the amount of C-section deliveries; where an operation is performed to deliver the baby making incisions in the abdominal. With 1 in 4 women having a C-section delivery making up just over 23% of deliveries.  Most deliveries whether they are normal or C-section result in a happy healthy baby and proud parents but a very small percentage of the time this is not always the case.

Unfortunately on the increase is the number of negligent acts being not only reported but actual claims being made against maternity hospitals for poor or sub-standard care during the delivery process. More over there is weight to these claims as baby’s and mothers lives are being dramatically affected. The base of these negligent claims arises from baby’s being distressed and often the supply of oxygen is lost. Being starved of oxygen can have many effects on a baby’s life causing conditions such as cerebral palsy; which can have catastrophic effects both to a baby mentally and physically. If such a condition could have been prevented by the medical staff it is classed as medical negligence. In some cases if patients want to find out if they can claim they can contact a medical negligence claims expert such as MedicalNegligenceAssist.co.uk. If the error was in a UK hospital patients or relatives can also make a complaint through the NHS hospital where it happened in.