Pitfalls in our practice: examples from three cases of obstetric litigation

It is often not the complicated and controversial obstetric management decisions that lead to obstetric litigation. These cases often involve basic obstetric management decisions that are either not performed to an appropriate standard, not performed in a timely manner and/or inadequate documentation of such. This may be secondary to lack of knowledge or skills, failure to seek senior advice or appropriate help/supervision or failure to instigate appropriate management in a timely manner e.g. out of hours/weekends, workload on the delivery unit, failure to appreciate the urgency of the clinical situation. Illustrated in three cases below are examples of successful litigation, all of which involved a failure to follow basic obstetric principles and guidelines.