In this expert webinar, Nikki Khan shares practical insight into shoulder dystocia from a midwifery and medico-legal perspective, including the red flags solicitors should look for when reviewing maternity records.

About the Speaker

Nikki Khan is an experienced midwife with more than 35 years of clinical experience. She has worked as a midwifery expert witness since 2016 and provides medico-legal reports for both claimant and defendant instructions.

Her specialist expertise includes birth injury claims, shoulder dystocia, maternity care standards, antenatal risk recognition, emergency obstetric management, and documentation issues in complex clinical negligence cases.

Webinar Summary

In this session, Nikki Khan explores how shoulder dystocia arises, why it can be difficult to predict, and how antenatal, intrapartum, and emergency management records should be reviewed in birth injury claims.

The webinar focuses on the practical questions solicitors and experts need to consider when assessing whether an injury was avoidable, including whether risks were identified, whether appropriate protocols were followed, and whether the contemporaneous records support the stated management.

Key medico-legal themes include:

• Why antenatal red flags, including previous shoulder dystocia, diabetes, high BMI, excessive fetal growth, and suspected macrosomia, should be reviewed carefully.
• The importance of calling the emergency buzzer immediately once shoulder dystocia is suspected.
• Why McRoberts manoeuvre and suprapubic pressure are usually the first-line responses.
• How excessive traction, incorrect McRoberts positioning, or fundal pressure may become central breach issues.
• Why timings, manoeuvre sequence, witness evidence, and shoulder dystocia pro formas are often critical in litigation.

“Once you have been involved in shoulder dystocia, you never forget it. It is one of the most distressing things as a health professional and also for the mother involved.”

For a deeper analysis of shoulder dystocia in birth injury claims, including risk factors, documentation issues, medico-legal considerations, and key takeaways for solicitors:

Read the full medico-legal article here >