Women's health

According to research by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), around 6 in every 100 women giving birth for the first time experience a severe tear. A perineal tear can cause incontinence (urinary and faecal) and can have a devastating impact on a mother’s mental health.

Our specialist team of birth injury lawyers has represented hundreds of women who have suffered severe perineal tear injuries during childbirth.

We represent women who have undergone treatment without having properly consented to the same. This includes women who have not been informed of all the material risks and alternatives to the treatment.

We acted for a woman whose baby was delivered by forceps, and both mother and baby suffered injury as a result, despite it being clearly documented that she did not want a forceps delivery in any circumstances.

We acted for a woman who was left unable to have children when her medical advisers did not tell her that the risks of endometrial ablation include a future risk of requiring a hysterectomy.

Infertility continues to affect an increasingly larger proportion of the population. There are a number of factors that can affect fertility such as age, lifestyle and medical conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis.

We represent women have suffered negligent fertility treatment, for example we represented a woman who sustained injury to her bowel during laparoscopic ovarian drilling.

We also represent women who, as a result of negligence, have been left unable to conceive naturally. We have represented women who have required a hysterectomy as a result of negligence, such as misdiagnosed ectopic pregnancy and mismanagement of labour. In these cases we have secured compensation which has enabled our clients to pay for IVF treatment.

This long-term condition can have a significant impact on women’s lives. It occurs when the lining of the uterus starts to grow in other places such as the fallopian tubes. We secured £500,000 for a woman whose endometriosis was misdiagnosed for years leaving her in pain, with reduced fertility and facing a number of surgical procedures.

We represented the families of two young women who died from blood clots associated with the contraceptive pill.

The most recent report of the UK Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in 2017 found that between 2013 and 2015 8.8 women per 100,000 died during or soon after being pregnant. Two thirds of the women who died had pre-exiting physical or mental conditions. Maternity care scandals in Shrewsbury and East Kent demonstrate that the problems of low standards of care still persist. We are currently representing the family of Mary Agyapong who died of COVID-19 and pneumonia whilst pregnant.

More than 1 in 10 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy and the first year after birth. It is so important that women’s mental health is monitored and discussed so that perinatal mental illness can be diagnosed and treated promptly.

We represent women who have experienced mental illness during the perinatal period for many reasons, including women who have suffered as a direct consequence of a traumatic birth.

In 2019 the British Heart Foundation highlighted a gender gap in the treatment of women who suffer heart attacks because they are not treated in the same way as men who experience the same symptoms. A woman is 50% more likely to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack than a man.

We settled a case for £1.67million for a woman who had a stroke when her heart infection was missed.

Older women often experience age discrimination when they contract breast cancer and then face a shortened life-span as a result. Younger women’s breast cancer symptoms can also be missed and young women are often reassured without investigations taking place that their symptoms are not cancerous as they are too young. We acted for the families of Ruth Picardie and Beth Wagstaff. These women in their early 30s with young families, both died after receiving a delayed breast cancer diagnosis.

We also act for women who have suffered a delay in diagnosis of cervical cancer. This is often due to the negligence of a GP or other medical profession but can also be as a result mistakes made by laboratory services.

Sodium Valproate - Sodium Valproate is an anti-convulsant drug, prescribed to control epileptic convulsions. The use of sodium valproate by women during pregnancy caused physical and developmental problems to their children known as Foetal Valproate Syndrome (FVS), which is now called fetal valproate spectrum disorder.

“Women and their children have been let down by the healthcare system. Health professionals did not - and in some cases still do not - inform them of the risks. Health regulators have not done enough to make them do so.” - Maria Panteli, medical negligence partner.

Our medical negligence lawyers are investigating claims for those whose children suffered FVS after being prescribed sodium valproate after 2004, when the risks were better known among the medical community. Leigh Day also represents patient groups representing families affected by the use of Sodium Valproate.