Women at Work: Lawyer Kate Waterford, birth trauma specialist

Posted on 5 March, 2020

Kate Waterford makes no judgement about how another woman gives birth.

The Special Counsel at Maliganis Edwards Johnson leads a practice in medical negligence claims with a special interest in birth trauma.

She has also recently taken up the role of Chair of the Australasian Birth Trauma Association, an organisation which provides support services to women who have suffered birth trauma, and education to professionals working across maternal health services.

For Kate, it is not so much which birth path a woman chooses—be it a natural or medicalised—but whether she is given autonomy, information and choice on that journey.

Birth trauma litigation is a rapidly growing area of personal injury law.

While birth can be a joyous experience, many women suffer horrific physical and psychological trauma in pregnancy or labour; such as perineal tears, pelvic floor injuries, pelvic organ prolapse, haemorrhage, and post-traumatic stress disorders.

The fact that these women are dealing with coming to terms with the responsibilities of motherhood, along with the disabilities associated with birth trauma, makes them particularly vulnerable to developing chronic health conditions.

In other tragic cases, mismanagement of the pregnancy or the birth process leads to a stillbirth or baby’s death.

Kate has a long interest in human rights, is currently completing her PhD in human rights law at the Australian National University and recently stepped down as Vice Chair of Amnesty International, after six years on the board.

She also comes to the issue of birth trauma from a position of personal understanding.

The mother of two under five went through the ACT’s public birth program and praises the midwives who cared for her. Yet her first birth brought with it the unexpected occurrence of a severe post-partum haemorrhage—one of the most common causes of maternal mortality across the globe.

“It was traumatic for me because it was life-threatening, and it was traumatic for my partner as well. So although I feel very fortunate that I’ve had a good recovery from all of that, it has opened my eyes to just how quickly things can go wrong.”

“What I see emerging in the stories of many of the women who come to me for advice is that women are not given enough choices about what is right for them and are not allowed full body autonomy in the management of their risks for them. So the law basically says that if a woman is facing material risks, whether it’s to her or to her baby, she needs to be advised about that and allowed to be an autonomous decision-maker in the process.”

The ACT Government is presently carrying out an inquiry into maternity services in the Canberra, with a range of organisations making submissions which suggest that professional staff are often under-resourced and overstretched, with dangerous and risky practices prevalent.

Recent research shows that birth trauma rates are increasing, with Australia’s maternity care at “crisis point” and up to one in three birthing women affected.

For Kate, negative birth outcomes can be a risk for any woman.

Over the years, Kate has had the opportunity to work closely with many women and their families coming to terms with birth trauma. She has successfully presented compensation claims for women who have suffered physical and psychological injury of all kinds; for their partners, who often suffer psychological trauma when witnessing a dangerous birth and its aftermath; and for families who have experienced loss of their pregnancies or babies through medical error.

Many women who have suffered birth trauma, and sometimes also their partners or other close family members, have strong claims for compensation against the doctors, hospitals or other health professionals at fault in their injury.

Where liability can be established, claimants can secure damages for their pain and suffering, treatment expenses, assistance and care needs, and economic loss.

“I don’t always know when someone walks through my door whether they have a good claim for negligence, but we can talk, and I can investigate, and we can piece it all together. It can be incredibly important for women to perhaps understand that unfortunate outcomes are not their fault, and many also want to ensure that what has happened to them doesn’t happen to the next mother giving birth…There is often power in that.”

This editorial was created in partnership with Maliganis Edwards Johnson. For more information on sponsored partnerships, click here.