We helped Safaa* after the traumatic birth of her first baby left her with anxiety and flashbacks. She came to us wanting to better understand what went wrong, and why.

What happened to Safaa and her child?

In 2016, Safaa found out she’d be having her first child. The pregnancy itself was uneventful, with no problems for Safaa or the baby.

Safaa went into spontaneous labour. Her mother had travelled to be with her during labour and help look after the baby as Safaa got used to motherhood.

The delivery of her child was a traumatic experience. Her baby was born very ill.

The communication between the medical staff and Safaa was poor. They failed to tell her what was happening or give her sufficient updates. This left Safaa believing her son had died.

Thankfully, her son hadn’t died, but he did need a prolonged stay in the NICU while medical staff monitored his progress.

While he did survive, he’s been left with devastating injuries. Safaa’s son has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy with mild hemiplegia (GMFCS 1). He also has a global developmental delay with some autistic features.

How has this impacted Safaa’s life?

Safaa was severely psychologically impacted by the labour and subsequent days. She was forced to relive the experience each time she returned to the NICU to see her child. She also felt the same sadness and fear when she returned home, which was prepared for the new arrival.

When Safaa brought her son home, she struggled to sleep because of the fear something would happen to her child while he slept. Because of this, she’d constantly check on her son.

Safaa began having flashbacks and nightmares about what had happened. She experienced symptoms of anxiety, including tightness in her chest and difficulty breathing.

Despite these symptoms and the lack of sleep, Safaa didn’t realise this wasn’t normal. She believed this was an experience most first-time mothers went through.

Safaa’s child is now eight, but the trauma still impacts Safaa's life. It’s only through therapy that she’s been able to get a better understanding of what’s happened to her.

How did Irwin Mitchell help Safaa?

After going to therapy, Safaa understood what happened to her wasn’t a common thing. She came to us to investigate the psychiatric injury caused by the traumatic birth of her son.

Lauren Hurney worked with Safaa to help her get answers from the Barts Health NHS Trust about what went wrong during labour.

Lauren used independent medical experts to assess the care given to Safaa and put our findings to the Trust in a Letter of Claim.

After receiving the Letter of Claim, the Trust investigated the birth and found that:

• There was no clear plan for foetal monitoring in active labour.
• The foetal heart was not listened to as per Barts Health guidelines in the second stage of labour. We note that it was the panel’s findings that this should be done every five minutes following a contraction, for one minute. This was not done following 13:00 hours.
• The deceleration at 12:45 hours of the foetal heart rate (FHR) should have triggered staff to initiate continuous electronic foetal monitoring. This was not done.
• The numeric value of the FHR during the deceleration was not recorded at 13.10 hours.
• The FHR wasn’t auscultated following the deceleration (and CGT monitoring wasn't commenced) therefore, it was impossible to assess foetal wellbeing.
• A further deceleration was heard at 13:16 hours, again no numeric value was recorded, and no records of an assessment; abdominal descent, or vertex being visible. There was still no CTG monitoring.
• No CTG monitoring, no record of decelerations between 13:16 and 13:50 hours and no mention at all of FHR for 16 minutes (in continued clear breach of guidelines to auscultate every five minutes and in any event also a clear breach for failure to transfer to CTG monitoring.)

The outcome

The Trust admitted liability and agreed to pay compensation to Safaa for the trauma caused by the substandard care at birth.

On the claim, Lauren said: “Sadly, through our work, we see the devastating consequences that families can be left to face as a result of a birth trauma, and as highlighted in this case, how that devastation can manifest into a psychiatric injury. 

“While nothing can change what’s happened, we are pleased that we were able to achieve a settlement for Safaa and that Judgement has been entered into for her son.”

Safaa’s family said: “It has been an incredibly difficult time for us as a family. Nothing will ever take away the trauma that we experienced that day. It is something that we, as a family, will have to deal with for the rest of our lives.”

“We hope that lessons can be learnt from our experience so that no family has to live through this again.”

*Not real name used.

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