Arrange your FREE Initial Consultation
Mothers who are expecting more than one baby need specialist maternity care. Twin pregnancies must be carefully monitored for harmful conditions such as twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), and also have a higher risk of complications, such as intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), pre-eclampsia, and gestational (pregnancy-related) diabetes.
Twin pregnancies must be treated as high risk throughout the mother’s antenatal care, labour and delivery, and in the neonatal (newborn) period immediately after birth. Regular scanning and monitoring throughout pregnancy, and careful planning, monitoring and management of the delivery are essential to ensure a safe outcome for the mother and her babies.
If you, or your children, have been injured by negligent maternity or neonatal care, you may be entitled to claim compensation.
Speak to our medical negligence solicitors
For more than 30 years, Boyes Turner's medical negligence solicitors have guided injured patients and their families through the claims process to secure the compensation and specialist support that they need to manage their disability and rebuild their lives.
You can contact us by telephone or email for free, confidential advice from a medical negligence solicitor. We will ask you to tell us briefly about your own or your child’s injury and your maternity and neonatal care, and advise you about any time limits which may apply and whether we can help you investigate your claim. Once our investigations confirm you have grounds for a claim, we will notify the defendant healthcare provider (usually represented by NHS Resolution) on your behalf and invite them to respond, giving them an opportunity to admit liability (responsibility for your injuries) before court proceedings are issued.
If liability is admitted, we will obtain a judgment from the court and apply for a substantial interim payment to meet your needs arising from your injury and disability. If NHS Resolution deny liability, we will advise you about the best way to proceed with your claim. This may involve issuing court proceedings or inviting NHS Resolution to enter into settlement negotiations or mediation.
Partner, Medical negligence
Our cerebral palsy lawyers have secured a £2,225,000 compensation settlement for a boy whose brain was severely damaged when he was deprived of oxygen in the womb during a twin to twin transfusion.
Read the full story
Jul 2024
Feb 2024
Feb 2023
Dec 2022
Jan 2022
Dec 2021
Jun 2021
May 2021
Mar 2020
Jan 2018
Aug 2016
In what can only be described as a stressful process dealing with Birth Negligence for your child, Boyes Turner, specifically Richard Money Kyrle and Tara Byrne made the process as smooth, efficient, and with a high level of understanding and empathy as possible. Each part of the process was explained clearly in layman's terms so I had a clear idea of what to expect and also a timeline of how long each process would take. Both Richard and Tara were always an email or phone call away and having to divulge such past traumatic events was done with the utmost respect and empathy. My son's case has now settled and thanks to all the hard work and fighting for justice we are able to move towards a bright future.
We tend to think of twins as identical or non-identical. However, during pregnancy, twins are classified by whether the babies share the placenta and its membranes. The type of twins determines the risk and the level of specialist care that the mother should receive throughout her pregnancy, labour, and delivery. There are three types of twins:
Parents can find out which type of twins they have at the antenatal ultrasound scan appointment between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Having twins, triplets or other multiples increases the risk of developing many of the complications of pregnancy. These complications include:
Gestational diabetes refers to when a woman develops diabetes in pregnancy. In severe cases, the mother may need tablets or insulin injections to keep her blood sugar within safe levels. Gestational diabetes must be diagnosed, monitored and kept under control as it increases the risk of developing other complications of pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, shoulder dystocia, stillbirth, prematurity, and respiratory difficulties, neonatal hypoglycaemia and jaundice for the newborn baby.
Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome or TTTS is a serious complication of twin pregnancy which occurs when abnormalities in the blood vessels of the placenta allow more blood to flow to one twin than the other. The twin who receives less blood (the ‘donor twin’) is left undernourished and anaemic. The twin who receives too much blood (the ‘recipient twin’) may suffer heart failure from their cardiovascular system becoming overloaded, and complications from too much amniotic fluid.
When TTTS is suspected in a twin pregnancy, frequent ultrasound scanning must take place to monitor the babies’ growth and health. The mother may need to be referred urgently to a fetal medicine centre for specialist treatment. Any delays in diagnosis of TTTS or referral to a specialist fetal medicine centre for treatment can result in death or brain injury to the unborn babies.
When an unborn baby is positioned with their bottom or feet down (instead of head down) in the last weeks of pregnancy, this is known as a breech presentation.
In twin or multiple pregnancies, it is important that the method and timing of the babies’ delivery is carefully planned in advance with the mother and an experienced obstetrician. Twin births should be managed in hospital under the care of a multidisciplinary maternity team including midwives, an obstetrician and paediatricians. Throughout labour and delivery, the unborn twins must be monitored carefully with electronic fetal heart monitoring.
Twin births are often recommended to take place by caesarean section, especially if the first twin is in the breech position or the second twin is in transverse position. Vaginal breech deliveries of twins need careful management by obstetricians who are skilled in handling the complications of multiple births and vaginal breech delivery.
Severe brain injury to babies and birth injury compensation claims commonly arise from maternity emergencies in which inexperienced or unskilled junior obstetricians are left to manage unplanned vaginal breech deliveries.
Birth injury compensation claims arising from negligent maternity care during twin pregnancy and birth often involve one or more of the following mistakes:
Our experienced birth injury solicitors investigate the cause and full extent of each client’s injury carefully, to ensure that our client receives their full entitlement to compensation. This includes ensuring that the long-term consequences of their injury, such as future developmental or increasing disability, are understood and taken into account when assessing their future needs and the value of the claim.
Birth and neonatal injuries which often lead to twin pregnancy negligence compensation claims include:
Partner
Senior Associate - Solicitor
Associate - Solicitor
Solicitor
Paralegal
Trainee Solicitor
Medical records coordinator