Primary and acute care
Obstetrics expert witnesses
Listed obstetrics expert witnesses address antenatal management, decisions in labour, mode and timing of delivery, and the recognition of complications. The instruction should identify the decision point that is criticised.
01
The evidence
What an obstetrics expert witness is asked to determine
Obstetric evidence turns on sequence. The fetal monitoring trace, partogram, theatre timings and the entries recording each review show when a concern arose and how long it took to act on it. Later knowledge of the outcome does not establish what the trace showed at the time.
- Whether antenatal risk assessment and the planned mode of delivery matched the history recorded.
- Whether fetal monitoring in labour was interpreted in line with the category assigned.
- Whether the decision to expedite delivery was taken and implemented within an appropriate period.
- Whether an operative or instrumental delivery was performed to the expected standard.
- Whether haemorrhage, shoulder dystocia or perineal injury was recognised and managed appropriately.
Practitioners are listed across all four UK nations. Location can be narrowed in the register’s location listings before an instruction is made.
Claim contexts
Claims that instruct this discipline
These links describe the question obstetrics evidence can answer. They do not prescribe the scope of an individual instruction.
Birth injury and cerebral palsy claims
Decisions in labour and the timing of delivery.
View claim type → 02Clinical negligence claims
Antenatal and intrapartum management of the mother.
View claim type → 03Inquests
Obstetric evidence following maternal or neonatal death.
View claim type →Search the register by the discipline used in the instruction.
See obstetrics listingsReport routes
Reports prepared
The maternity record usually justifies a records review report before further evidence is obtained. A breach and causation report then separates the decision criticised from the injury alleged.
Neonatal, paediatric neurology and midwifery evidence commonly accompanies an obstetric opinion in birth injury work. The report pages describe the scope of each route.
Obstetrics expert witness evidence
An obstetrician expert witness sets out the sequence of labour from the contemporaneous record and states what the monitoring and timings support about each decision taken.
The listing identifies discipline and coverage; scope, conflicts and availability are agreed with the practitioner. See the NICE antenatal care guidance alongside the case material.
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