Could your baby’s perinatal death have been prevented — and does it amount to medical negligence?

Understanding perinatal death: what normally happens

Perinatal death refers to the death of a baby around the time of birth. Clinicians define it as a death that occurs from 20 weeks of pregnancy through to 28 days after birth. It includes stillbirth — when a baby dies before or during delivery — and early neonatal death, which is when a newborn dies within the first four weeks of life.

Pregnancy carries inherent risk. Clinicians and families both understand this. But modern obstetric care exists precisely to identify those risks early and act on them. Midwives, obstetricians, and neonatal teams follow established clinical guidelines designed to detect danger and intervene before a baby dies.

For more general information about pregnancy and birth complications, Healthdirect Australia provides accessible, evidence-based resources.

When things start to go wrong

Most perinatal deaths do not happen without warning. Clinicians often see signs that something is wrong before the worst outcome occurs. The critical question is whether those signs triggered the right response.

Some warning signs are subtle. Others are unmistakable. A competent clinical team recognises both and acts without delay.

Each of these signs demands a specific clinical response. When a midwife or obstetrician dismisses a mother’s concern about reduced fetal movement, or fails to act on an abnormal CTG reading, the window for intervention closes — sometimes permanently.

A common pattern — where care can break down

Perinatal deaths linked to substandard care tend to follow recognisable patterns. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has identified systemic failures in maternity care as a recurring concern across Australian hospitals.

Failure to respond to reduced fetal movement

A mother reports that her baby has stopped moving. The midwife reassures her without performing a CTG or escalating to a doctor. Hours pass. By the time the team investigates, the baby has died in utero. Reduced fetal movement is a recognised warning sign. Every maternity unit in NSW has a protocol for investigating it. When staff ignore that protocol, the consequences can be fatal.

Misreading or ignoring CTG findings

A CTG machine records the baby’s heart rate continuously during labour. Abnormal patterns — called decelerations — tell clinicians the baby may be in distress. Some clinicians misread these patterns. Others notice them but delay acting. An obstetrician who fails to order an emergency caesarean section when the CTG clearly shows fetal distress may have breached the standard of care.

Delayed diagnosis of placental problems

The placenta delivers oxygen and nutrients to the baby. When it fails — through abruption, insufficiency, or abnormal positioning — the baby’s survival depends on rapid clinical action. Delayed ultrasound, missed growth restriction findings, or failure to refer a high-risk mother to a specialist can all contribute to a preventable death.

Inadequate neonatal resuscitation

Some babies are born alive but in critical condition. A skilled neonatal team must act within seconds. When a hospital fails to have trained staff present at a high-risk delivery, or when resuscitation equipment is unavailable or used incorrectly, a baby who might have survived does not.

Why this matters legally

Every clinician who treats a patient owes that patient a duty of care — a legal obligation to provide treatment that meets the standard of a competent professional in the same field. In obstetrics and neonatal medicine, that duty extends to both the mother and the baby.

Not every perinatal death gives rise to a legal claim. Some babies die despite excellent care. Clinicians cannot prevent every tragedy. But when a clinician’s decision — or failure to make a decision — falls below the standard a reasonable obstetrician or midwife would have met, and that failure caused or contributed to the baby’s death, the law may recognise a claim.

For a broader explanation of how medical negligence works in Australia, Reframe Legal — Medical Negligence sets out the key concepts in plain language.

When perinatal death may amount to medical negligence

The NSW Civil Liability Act 2002 sets the legal framework for negligence claims in this state — it defines how courts measure whether a clinician’s conduct fell below an acceptable standard and whether that failure caused harm.

Several specific situations may give rise to a claim following a perinatal death.

If the clinical team ignored your reports of reduced fetal movement — and no investigation occurred before your baby died — the failure to follow established protocols may constitute a breach of the standard of care.

If an obstetrician misread or failed to act on an abnormal CTG — and the baby died from birth asphyxia (oxygen deprivation during labour) — the delay in ordering delivery may have caused or contributed to the death.

If a growth-restricted baby received no additional monitoring or early delivery plan — and the baby was later stillborn — the failure to refer or escalate may be legally significant.

If the hospital lacked a trained neonatal resuscitation team at a high-risk delivery — and the baby died from causes that skilled resuscitation may have reversed — the systemic failure may support a claim against the hospital.

If a maternal infection went undetected during labour — and the baby died from sepsis shortly after birth — the failure to test, diagnose, and treat may be the critical breach.

When harm becomes long-term or permanent

The death of a baby is not only a medical event. It reshapes every part of a family’s life. Understanding the full scope of harm matters — both for the family’s wellbeing and for any legal assessment of what compensation should cover.

• 1
  Immediate grief and traumaParents experience acute grief, shock, and often post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — a condition where the mind and body remain in a state of distress long after the event. Many parents describe flashbacks, nightmares, and an inability to return to normal life.
• 2
  Prolonged psychological harmClinical depression, anxiety disorders, and complicated grief — grief that does not follow a normal path — affect many parents for years. Relationships between partners often suffer. Siblings of the baby may also experience lasting psychological effects.
• 3
  Physical consequences for the motherSome mothers sustain physical injuries during a traumatic delivery — including uterine damage, perineal tears, or complications from emergency procedures. These injuries may affect future pregnancies and long-term physical health.
• 4
  Financial consequencesParents often take extended leave from work. Some cannot return to their previous roles at all. Ongoing psychological treatment, specialist care, and the costs of future fertility treatment all create significant financial pressure.
• 5
  Long-term impact on future pregnanciesMany parents experience severe anxiety during subsequent pregnancies. Some require additional specialist monitoring. The psychological burden of a subsequent pregnancy after perinatal loss is well-documented and clinically significant.

What compensation can cover in perinatal death cases

NSW law allows families to seek compensation for a range of losses following a perinatal death caused by negligence. Compensation does not undo the loss. But it can provide financial stability and access to the care families need to rebuild their lives.

Compensation in these cases may cover pain and suffering, psychological treatment costs, lost income for one or both parents, the cost of future care, and — where the mother sustained physical injuries — medical expenses related to those injuries.

Each case is assessed on its own facts. These figures are general ranges only. In perinatal death cases involving significant maternal psychological harm and lost income, claims frequently fall in the serious to severe range.

Time limits apply in NSW. Generally, a person has three years from the date they knew — or ought reasonably to have known — that negligence may have caused the harm. Acting within that window matters.

Bringing it together — do the pieces fit?

You may not know whether what happened to your baby amounts to negligence. That uncertainty is completely normal. Most families do not know — and they should not be expected to know without expert help.

But some questions can help you think clearly about what occurred.

For a detailed explanation of how the legal process works from start to finish, Reframe Legal — How Medical Negligence Claims Work in NSW walks through each stage in plain language.

You don’t need certainty to understand your position

Many families who come to a lawyer after a perinatal death say the same thing: “I don’t know if I have a case. I just need to understand what happened.” That is enough. Legal clarity does not require certainty — it requires a careful examination of the facts.

Grief can make it hard to think clearly. Self-doubt is common. Many parents wonder whether they are being unfair to the clinicians who cared for them. But asking whether the standard of care was met is not an accusation — it is a legitimate question that the law allows families to ask.

Understanding informed consent — the right to be told about risks and to make decisions about your care — is also relevant in many perinatal death cases. Reframe Legal — Informed Consent and Medical Negligence explains how this principle applies.

If a clinician’s conduct raises concerns beyond a civil claim, AHPRA — Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency regulates registered health practitioners in Australia and accepts complaints about professional conduct.

About the lawyer behind this article

Dr Rosemary Listing is a NSW medical negligence lawyer with a PhD focused on the intersection of clinical standards and legal accountability. Her academic and legal work examines how failures in the healthcare system translate into compensable harm for patients and families.

Perinatal death cases occupy a particular place in Dr Listing’s practice. She understands that these cases involve not only the loss of a baby but the destruction of a future that parents had already begun to imagine. Her legal analysis focuses on the clinical decisions made — or not made — in the hours and days surrounding the death, and whether those decisions met the standard that NSW law requires.

In her experience, harm in perinatal cases rarely comes from a single catastrophic error. More often, it comes from a sequence of small failures — a dismissed concern, a delayed review, a misread CTG — that together created a fatal outcome. Identifying that sequence requires both medical knowledge and legal precision.

Families who seek Dr Listing’s assessment are not looking to blame anyone. They are looking for an honest answer to an honest question: did the care meet the standard? Her role is to examine the clinical record, apply the legal framework, and give families the clearest possible picture of where they stand.

Dr Listing practises in NSW and accepts matters involving perinatal death, stillbirth, neonatal death, and related obstetric negligence claims.

This article is general legal information only. It does not constitute legal advice. Each person’s circumstances are different. The law discussed applies to New South Wales, Australia. Time limits apply to legal claims.