Primary and acute care
Midwifery expert witnesses
Listed midwifery expert witnesses address antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care delivered by midwives, including risk assessment, monitoring in labour and escalation to obstetric review. The standard applied is that of a competent registered midwife.
01
The evidence
What a midwifery expert witness is asked to determine
Midwifery evidence is closely tied to the contemporaneous record: the partogram, fetal monitoring trace, risk assessments and the timing of each escalation. Where the criticism concerns escalation, the question is what the midwife recorded and when, rather than what the obstetric team later decided.
- Whether antenatal risk assessment identified the factors the history and observations disclosed.
- Whether monitoring in labour was undertaken and interpreted in line with the risk category recorded.
- Whether escalation to obstetric or neonatal review took place when the findings indicated it.
- Whether care in the immediate postnatal period, including observation of mother and baby, met the expected standard.
- Where a midwifery opinion ends and an obstetric or neonatal opinion is required.
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 midwifery evidence can answer. They do not prescribe the scope of an individual instruction.
Birth injury and cerebral palsy claims
Intrapartum monitoring and escalation preceding an adverse outcome.
View claim type → 02Clinical negligence claims
Midwifery assessment, monitoring and postnatal care.
View claim type → 03Inquests
Evidence following maternal or neonatal death where midwifery care is examined.
View claim type →Search the register by the discipline used in the instruction.
See midwifery listingsReport routes
Reports prepared
Maternity records support a records review report at an early stage, which often determines whether the criticism lies with midwifery or obstetric care. A breach and causation report separates the standard question from the outcome alleged.
Obstetric, neonatal and paediatric neurology evidence is commonly instructed alongside a midwifery opinion. What each route addresses is set out on the report pages.
Midwifery expert witness evidence
A midwife expert witness reads the maternity record against the standard expected of a registered midwife, and identifies the point at which responsibility passed to the obstetric team.
The register lists the discipline and location; everything beyond that is agreed with the practitioner. See the Royal College of Midwives alongside the case material.
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