Mother suffered stillbirth after fetal growth scans were not given during pregnancy

Now the mother, who we have called Laura, has settled a legal claim against Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Early in Laura’s pregnancy risk factors were identified which meant she was initially put under consultant-led care so that a doctor would be in charge of her treatment (rather than midwives).  

However, a number of weeks later, a doctor decided that Laura, who does not speak English, no longer needed to be under consultant-led care and could be transferred to midwife-led care.  

Despite the decision being recorded in Laura’s medical notes, the necessary administrative arrangements were not made to transfer her to midwife-led care and Laura was not informed of this change.  

As a result, Laura did not receive all of the antenatal appointments she needed, despite her husband contacting the hospital on two occasions to see if more appointments were needed and being told that she only needed to attend if she had specific concerns.  

Laura eventually received a letter for a further antenatal appointment when she was 39 weeks pregnant, which she duly attended.  

However, an ultrasound scan performed at that appointment revealed that her baby had no heartbeat. Laura was advised that the baby had died in the uterus, and she had to deliver him stillborn three days later.  

A post-mortem examination revealed that Laura’s baby, who we have called Jack, had probably died very shortly before the ultrasound scan. He was noted to be small for his gestational age, about 1.6kg lighter than would be expected, which indicated that he had probably not been growing properly for a number of weeks.  

Laura instructed medical negligence solicitor, Rebecca Ridgeon, to bring a claim against the trust. Following Leigh Day’s investigation, the trust eventually admitted that Laura should have been offered additional antenatal appointments, which would have led to serial growth scans and recognition that Jack was not growing as well as he should have been. The trust admitted that, had these scans been performed, the hospital would have made sure that Laura delivered her son no later than 38 weeks into her pregnancy, and if they had done so, Jack would have been born alive.    

Rebecca Ridgeon said: 

“Whilst nothing can make up for Jack’s tragic loss, I am pleased that the Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust accepted responsibility for the failures in Laura’s antenatal care which meant that the problem with Jack’s growth was never identified. The compensation recovered has given Laura some closure on this awful experience and, crucially, it will allow Laura to have private psychological therapy, to help her with the flashbacks and intrusive thoughts which she still experiences.”