Birth Injury Compensation Calculator

By Marlon Harewood. Last updated 12th September 2024. In this guide, we will explain how to use our birth injury compensation calculator. If you or your baby have been injured during childbirth as a result of medical negligence, you may be owed compensation.

There are a number of different injuries you or your baby could sustain as a result of medical negligence in childbirth. Some of these injuries could have a permanent effect on your quality of life.

This guide will explain under what circumstances you could begin a claim for a birth injury, either against the NHS or a private healthcare facility. We’ll also look at some of the injuries, such as postnatal traumatic stress disorder, you may be able to claim compensation for.

In addition to this, our guide will highlight how a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you with making a personal injury claim. We’ll also explain No Win No Fee agreements in greater detail.

Our advisors offer free legal advice and are available 24/7 so if you have any questions about anything mentioned in this guide, just contact them. You can:

Call them on 0800 408 7826
Use our contact page
Use the live chat

For more information on whether you could be eligible to receive birth injury compensation, please read on.

Jump To A Section

A Guide To Using A Birth Injury Compensation Calculator
What Is A Birth Injury To A Mother Or Baby?
What Things Could You Claim For Following A Birth Injury?
Common Causes And Types Of Birth Injuries
Birth Injury Statistics
Claim Physical And Mental Care Costs After A Birth Injury
How To Use A Birth Injury Compensation Calculator
How Much Could I Expect To Claim For A Birth Injury?
Birth Injury Compensation Calculator
No Win No Fee Birth Injury Compensation Claim Agreements
Getting Free Advice
Ask Our Team To Calculate Your Birth Injury And Trauma Settlement
Resources And Case Studies

A Guide To Using A Birth Injury Compensation Calculator

There are various life-changing injuries that a mother or baby can experience during the process of childbirth. If these injuries were caused by the negligence of a healthcare provider, you could be eligible to claim.

When you seek medical attention, you’re entitled to a minimum standard of care from every healthcare provider who treats you. If this minimum standard of care is not provided, this is an example of negligence. If you or your baby were harmed as a result, you could claim compensation.

It’s important to note that not every instance of a birth injury will entitle you to make a claim for compensation. Sometimes, a birth injury might occur despite the healthcare provider delivering the right level of care.

Our birth injury compensation calculator can give you an idea of the compensation you could receive. It can value claims for a wide range of injuries, including things like spinal evidence and facial paralysis. All you need to do is input information about your injury and any loss of earnings associated with it.

What Is A Birth Injury To A Mother Or Baby?

A birth injury is an injury that occurs in the process of childbirth. They can affect the mother and the baby and can have serious, long-lasting effects on the quality of life of both.

This kind of incident can result in a wide range of physical or psychological effects. For example, your child might experience a fibula fracture as a result of medical negligence during childbirth. This could affect the way their bones develop and cause them pain.

Furthermore, you might experience some psychological impact of a birth injury caused by medical negligence. You could experience postnatal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If this was caused by negligence and negatively impacted your quality of life, you could be entitled to claim. You may be able to be compensated for multiple injuries that were caused by negligence and affect your quality of life.

If your child was injured during childbirth, then you can claim on their behalf. You would need to be appointed a litigation friend, and you can then claim at any point until they turn 18. Once they turn 18, if no claim has been made, they have 3 years to make one themselves.

For more information on the things that could entitle you to claim, speak to one of our advisors today. They could offer you free legal advice about claiming.

What Things Could You Claim For Following A Birth Injury?

When you make a claim for compensation for harm caused by medical negligence, there are two potential heads of claim that you could be entitled to. This is the case whether you make an NHS negligence claim or a claim against a private healthcare provider.

General damages relate to the pain, suffering and decline in your quality of life caused by the injury. Special damages, meanwhile, relates to the financial loss caused by the injury. Examples of what you could claim for include:

Loss of earnings, including future earnings
Travel costs
Prescriptions and medicine
Recreational activities that you can no longer commit to

If you want to receive special damages as part of your claim, you will need to provide evidence of the expenses you have incurred. This could include things like receipts and invoices. Without evidence, you may find it difficult to claim these costs back.

Common Causes And Types Of Birth Injuries

This section highlights some of the injuries that could be caused by clinical negligence during childbirth. This list is not exhaustive; if you or your baby have experienced a birth injury because of negligence that we have not mentioned below, you may still be able to claim. Get in touch with us for a valuation of your claim.

Erb’s Palsy And Cerebral Palsy

Erb’s Palsy is a condition that generally occurs after a difficult birth where the baby’s arm or head has been pulled during delivery. This pulling could damage the brachial plexus. These are the nerves in the shoulder that supply movement and feeling to the arms.

Cerebral palsy, on the other hand, is a problem with the brain. This can arise before childbirth, during it or shortly after the baby has been born. Examples of how this can occur include:

Infection– certain infections, including things like chickenpox and toxoplasmosis, could cause cerebral palsy in the child if the mother contracts them while pregnant.
Serious head injury– if the baby suffers a head injury in utero or during childbirth, this could result in cerebral palsy.
A temporary lack of oxygen to the brain. This could occur during a difficult birth and a brain injury could result from it.

Facial Paralysis And Disfigurement

Facial paralysis can be a very difficult thing for someone to cope with. If your child has facial paralysis that stops them from being able to shut their eye, then an eye pad and eyedrops might be used to protect the eye.

Some facial paralysis resulting from childbirth can be temporary. But when it’s permanent, it could also have a psychological effect on the child. They may notice that they look different to other children, causing them distress and emotional suffering.

Facial paralysis can be caused by:

Bell’s palsy, which could be caused by an infection.
Doctors provide you with a medication that causes labour to accelerate and stronger contractions.

Spinal Injuries

A spinal injury can have severe repercussions on a child’s quality of life. It might occur if the doctor pulls or twists on the neck during the course of delivery.

A spinal cord injury can be fatal. It can also cause quadriplegia, which is paralysis from the neck down.

Doctors could strain your child’s neck when delivering them, resulting in permanent damage.
Damage to the spine that occurred in the womb could be undiagnosed, which could result in the injury getting worse after birth.

Breaks And Fractures

A break or fracture can have a lasting impact on your baby’s health. If a break to the bone, for example, a pelvic fracture, is not treated properly, it could cause ongoing issues.

For instance, if the bone begins to heal while it’s out of position, this could mean that it needs to be re-broken and positioned correctly to heal again. A broken bone that begins to heal incorrectly might also cause your child an increased risk of osteoporosis as they grow.

Breaks or fractures could be caused by:

The inappropriate use of tools, such as forceps, during childbirth
Your baby suffering a fracture that is not spotted because of negligence, meaning that it needs more extensive treatment.

Postnatal Depression And Trauma

Postnatal depression is a kind of depression that mothers can experience after having a baby. You should seek medical attention if you think you might be suffering from post-natal depression, as this can affect your ability to look after yourself and your baby.

Postnatal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect mothers who have had a traumatic birth. For example, you might experience postnatal PTSD if you had a particularly long or stressful labour.

We’ve included some examples of how psychiatric problems could be caused or worsened by medical negligence below:

Your labour is particularly long or arduous because the healthcare providers failed to provide you with the right level of care. This results in postnatal PTSD.
You speak to your GP about post-natal depression but they brush off your concerns. This means that your condition gets worse.
You’re prescribed medication for postnatal depression. However, a spelling mistake on the prescription means that you get the wrong medication. This makes you ill.

Uterine Damage And Injuries

Uterine damage can be very painful and can have lasting consequences to your health. In addition to this, it can severely injure your baby if it happens during childbirth.

A rupture to the uterus can cause a range of the other injury types that we’ve mentioned in this guide. This is because uterine rupture can interrupt the flow of blood from the mother’s body to the baby’s brain. For instance, a uterine rupture could cause cerebral palsy.

Examples of how medical negligence could potentially lead a uterine rupture to occur, harming your baby, include:

Giving certain drugs to a mother who is having a vaginal birth after caesarian section (VBAC). This could increase the risk of uterine rupture.
Doctors failing to offer continuous foetal monitoring.
Healthcare providers failing to spot the early signs of a ruptured uterus, meaning they don’t act accordingly.

Birth Injury Statistics

A survey of women’s experiences during childbirth within the NHS was conducted in 2019 by the Care Quality Commission. Upon conducting the survey, the results state that over 50% of nurses that cared for their patients may not have been involved in the previous two stages: labour and antenatal care.

This could increase the risk of miscommunication between different areas of medicine. For instance, a nurse who cares for a new mother postnatally may not be aware of some of the issues that they experienced during antenatal care and childbirth. This might mean that they’re unaware of the things to look out for.

You can use our birth injury compensation calculator if you’d like an accurate estimate of what you could receive. Or if you’d like free legal advice, contact a team member using the phone number at the top of this page.

Claim Physical And Mental Care Costs After A Birth Injury

If you experience injury as a result of negligence during childbirth, there are a number of repercussions that could occur. Some of these could mean that you incur costs that you otherwise wouldn’t have.

The costs of things that you have had to pay for as a result of your injury could be covered by your claim. This might include:

Changes to your home you have to make because of the injuries, such as a care bed or a chair lift.
Adjustments to your vehicle if you now needed it to be wheelchair-accessible.
The value of any earnings you have lost as a result of your injuries.

It’s important to note that your compensation will only reflect the additional harm, pain and suffering or financial cost incurred as a result of your injuries and not your condition overall. For instance, it may be that you would have had to take time off while you recovered from having a baby even if no injury occurred. You would only be compensated for the additional loss of earnings you experienced as a result of the negligence that caused you harm.

How To Use A Birth Injury Compensation Calculator

Our birth injury compensation calculator can help you work out the amount you could claim for. It’s clear, easy and simple to use. You could have a compensation estimate in minutes.

All you need to do is input information on the injuries you or your baby sustained as a result of medical negligence. In addition to this, you can include the value of any lost earnings that the injuries caused you to incur.

For more information on how much your birth injuries could be worth in a claim, please read on. Otherwise, you can get in touch with our team today for a free, no-obligation assessment of your claim.

How Much Could I Expect To Claim For A Birth Injury?

Our birth injury calculator uses figures from the Judicial College. These are guideline compensation brackets based on previous settlement awards.

In order to work out how much your injuries are worth, you’ll usually be invited to a medical appointment as part of your claim. In this independent assessment, an examiner will assess your injuries and confirm that they’re consistent with your experience of childbirth. They’ll also speak with you about how your injuries have affected you.

The report from this assessment will be used with the help of the Judicial College Guidelines to value your claim. If you’d like to know more about how much your claim could be worth, speak with a member of our team today.

Before you use a birth injury compensation calculator, you may find this table useful. It makes use of JCG figures to give a guideline impression of different forms of birth trauma compensation. Only the top entry doesn’t come from the document.

If you’d like to discuss compensation in more detail, or have any questions about using a birth negligence compensation calculator, just call our dedicated team today. An advisor will be able to give you a detailed rundown of what you’re able to claim compensation for.

Injury	Severity	Compensation Guideline	Details
Numerous Serious Injuries And Financial Damage	Serious	Up to £1,000,000+	A payout addressing multiple birth injuries, in addition to resultant losses like missed earnings or medical bills.
Tetraplegia (also known as Quadriplegia)	Significant	£396,140 to £493,000	Where the injured person is paralysed from the neck down. The compensation awarded within this bracket will depend on things like life expectancy and the presence of pain.
Brain damage	Moderately severe	£267,340 to £344,150	The injured person will be left with a very severe disability. They'll be dependent on others and will need constant professional care.
Reproductive system: Female	Severe	£140,210 to £207,260	Where the injured person has been left infertile and this has left them with scarring, pain, anxiety and depression.
Shoulder	Severe	£23,430 to £58,610	These kinds of injuries are often associated with significant damage to the brachial plexus.
Shoulder	Moderate	£9,630 to £15,580	A frozen shoulder with limited movement, plus discomfort and persistent symptoms.
Fingers	Severe	Up to £44,840	Where the injuries have been so severely fractured that the grip is impaired and there may be a partial amputation.
Pelvis and Hips	Moderate (ii)	£15,370 to £32,450	Such cases could involve hip replacement or similar surgery.
Facial bones	Multiple Fractures	£18,180 to £29,220	Involving some deformity to the face of a permanent nature.
Thumb	Serious	£15,370 to £20,460	For example, a fracture that makes wire insertion necessary.

No Win No Fee Birth Injury Compensation Claim Agreements

You may be interested in having a solicitor represent you in making your claim and trying to secure even more in compensation then the compensation calculator predicts. If this is the case, we could help.

A No Win No Fee agreement is an agreement between you and your solicitor. It sets out the conditions that need to be met before you pay your solicitor for their services.

It means that:

You won’t be asked to make a payment upfront or while the claim is ongoing
If your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t be asked to pay your solicitor anything
If your claim is a success, your solicitor will deduct a legally-capped “success fee” from your compensation. This will ensure that you always get the majority of the compensation awarded to you.

If you’re interested in finding out more about a No Win No Fee agreement, why not speak with an advisor today? If your claim has a good chance of success, you could be connected with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.

Getting Free Advice

Use our birth injury compensation calculator now to see how much you could claim for harm caused by negligence in childbirth. Our advisors are available 24/7, so you can call at a time that suits you.

In addition to this, our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors have experience with birth injury compensation claims and could help you receive the compensation you deserve.

You can:

Call us on 0800 408 7826
Use our Live Chat service by clicking on the window in the right-hand corner of your screen.
Contact us via our website.

Ask Our Team To Calculate Your Birth Injury And Trauma Settlement

While our birth injury compensation calculator is a helpful tool that can provide an estimate of how much you could be owed in compensation, speaking to our team directly would mean that any estimate you receive comes from a personalised evaluation of the injuries you are claiming for.

An advisor can also provide additional information about what can be taken into consideration when valuing your claim. For example, they can discuss how the mental or emotional impact of a traumatic birth could influence how much you’re owed. In addition, they could look at the influence the impact on your quality of life has on birth injuries and compensation settlements.

Consultations with our advisers are free, and could give you more insight into how a personal injury claim can work and information about the average birth injury settlement in UK.

For more information on traumatic birth compensation, you can talk to a member of our team.

Resources And Case Studies

Please find the links below for more useful information.

Never events are medical events that should never happen as long as medical frameworks and guidelines are followed. For more information about them, visit the NHS website.

More information about NHS Resolution can be found here. They’re the body of the Department of Health and Social Care responsible for handling NHS negligence claims.

Visit the NHS page on labour and birth for more information.

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