Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Compensation Claims

We’ll listen to every word you weren’t able to say.

Legal support after stillbirth or neonatal death – we’ll help you seek answers

Finding answers after the loss of your baby

Losing a baby through stillbirth or shortly after birth is devastating. We understand that families want answers—what happened, why, and whether anything could have been done differently.

Our legal team has supported many families through this traumatic time. If we believe there is a strong legal case, we’ll guide you through the process of making a claim with sensitivity and honesty.

Experience you can rely on

Not every stillbirth or neonatal death is caused by negligence. But when mistakes are made such as missed warning signs or delays in care, we work with independent medical experts to assess whether there is a legal claim. Throughout, we’ll explain what’s happening and support you every step of the way.

Working for lasting change

Beyond compensation, many of our clients want to help ensure this doesn’t happen to other families. Where possible, we engage with hospital trusts to encourage policy reviews and better care for the future.

We could not fault the service provided by the whole team at Tees. Responsive, supportive and extremely professional throughout. The success in the case and the justice achieved was what we wanted.

Causes of stillbirths and neonatal deaths

Most causes are not the result of medical mistakes. Stillbirths and neonatal deaths can and do happen to babies who have been healthy throughout the pregnancy. Possible causes can sometimes be due to medical failures, but every case is different and not every condition can be treated. Where there is a medical error, this is often related to failure to diagnose or treat a condition effectively. Causes, which may or may not be due to error, include:

  • issues relating to the placenta which impacts on the baby
  • failures in monitoring; CTG and sonography
  • failures to manage small for gestational age (SGA) babies and fetal growth restricted (FGR) babies
  • bleeding (haemorrhage) during or before labour
  • pre-eclampsia – high blood pressure in the mother
  • issues with the umbilical cord
  • physical or genetic problem with the baby
  • pre-existing diabetes or gestational diabetes 
  • an infection in the mother can cause the death of the baby as they do not have a developed immune system.
  • liver disorder – obstetric cholestasis or intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) which can affect pregnant women.
  • Failures to escalate care and failures in management of care during labour following episodes of: bleeding; fetal bradycardia (low heartrate in the baby); fetal tachycardia (high heartrate of the baby); shoulder dystocia; breech delivery. 
  • Failures in resuscitation at birth.

Getting support after a stillbirth or neonatal death

There is a range of organisations that offer practical support to parents including:

Petals Charity – supports parents by providing specialist counselling as a result of bereavement, trauma or loss related to pregnancy including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons (TFMR) and neonatal loss.

SANDS – supports and promotes research to better understand the causes of baby deaths and provides bereavement support to parents.

Tommy’s – funds research to prevent complications and loss, provides specialist care and midwife-led advice for parents before, during and after pregnancy and supports those who have lost babies.

We’re here to help

Tees is a top-tier Legal 500 firm with one of the country’s leading medical negligence teams. We specialise in handling complex, sensitive claims—often cases other firms won’t take on.

We’re honest about your chances of success. If we don’t believe a claim is likely to succeed, we’ll explain why. If we do take on your case, and it doesn’t succeed, you won’t pay a penny—we work on a no win, no fee basis.

We also care about improving maternity services. Many of our clients want more than compensation,they want change. We’ll help push for that too, wherever possible.

If you’d like to meet one of our medical negligence experts for a confidential, no obligation chat, please get in touch. We have offices across Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, but we can help you wherever you are in England and Wales

Our legal services are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

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Frequently asked questions

The answers to many of your questions can be found here, please get in touch for further information.

I have been told my property has development potential. What do I do?

If you’ve been contacted by a developer or a land promoter regarding a potential development to your property, you may wish to consider granting an option agreement or a promotion agreement. An option agreement is made between the landowner and the developer, where it is intended that the developer will apply for planning permission and requires an option to buy the property. A land promotion agreement is used where a developer agrees to apply for planning permission and will market the property for sale on the open market once planning permission has been obtained. This is usually in return for a proportion of the net sale proceeds. The law on this is very complex and you will need specialist advice. 

Contact us today

If you’d like to meet one of our experts for a confidential, no obligation chat, please get in touch.

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