About the Speaker

Dr Lorna Phelan
Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Phelan has over 30 years’ experience in high-risk obstetrics, intrapartum care, and maternity governance. She leads CTG training and interpretation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and is nationally recognised for her expertise in root-cause analysis, human factors, and decision-making in obstetric emergencies. As a seasoned expert witness, she is trusted by solicitors on both claimant and defendant sides for her clear, contextual medico-legal insight.

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Webinar Highlights

In this session, Dr Phelan shared expert insight into the medico-legal challenges surrounding obstetric birth injury claims - from breach and causation to system-level failure and human factors in maternity care.

Key themes included:

• Assessing breach in delayed or incorrect CTG interpretation - and why CTG remains an unreliable yet vital tool.

• Understanding causation in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and the critical role of timing and escalation.

• The “Four Cs” - choice, context, consent, and continuity - as root causes of many avoidable maternity claims.

• Human factors and systemic pressures, including staff shortages, decision-fatigue, and loss of contextual oversight in labour wards.

• Governance gaps and the need for true systems-level change rather than repetitive investigations.

Read the full medico-legal article here >