Pregnancy should be one of the most closely monitored periods of a woman’s medical care, yet preventable errors during prenatal visits, labor, and delivery continue to injure mothers and babies across Indiana. When a physician misses warning signs of a dangerous complication or a hospital team fails to respond to distress during delivery, the consequences can last a lifetime.

At Wagner Reese LLP, we represent Indianapolis families who have been harmed by maternity care negligence, and we understand how devastating it feels when the people trusted to protect a mother and her child fall short. Our team investigates every stage of prenatal, labor, and postpartum care to determine where the standard of care broke down, and we hold negligent providers accountable through our medical malpractice practice.

What Counts as Maternity Care Negligence

Maternity care negligence occurs when a doctor, nurse, midwife, or hospital fails to provide the level of care that a reasonably competent provider would offer under similar circumstances, resulting in harm to the mother, the baby, or both. This standard applies across every phase of pregnancy, from the first prenatal appointment through delivery and the weeks immediately following birth.

Errors can take many forms. A physician might fail to diagnose preeclampsia despite clear warning signs in a patient’s blood pressure readings. A labor and delivery team might misread fetal heart monitoring strips and delay an emergency cesarean section. A nurse might administer the wrong dosage of a labor-inducing medication. Each of these scenarios can cause serious, sometimes permanent, harm.

How These Cases Differ From General Medical Malpractice

Maternity care negligence claims share the same legal foundation as other medical malpractice cases, but they carry unique challenges. Two patients are often affected by a single act of negligence, the mother and the child, and the injuries to each may require separate analysis of causation and damages. Our team works with maternal-fetal medicine professionals and labor and delivery experts to establish exactly how and when the standard of care was breached.

Timing also plays a distinct role in these cases. A delay of even a few minutes during a fetal distress event can mean the difference between a healthy delivery and a lifelong injury. Because hospital records often document these events in real time, our attorneys move quickly to secure fetal monitoring strips, nursing notes, and physician orders before they can be lost or altered.

Common Causes of Maternity Care Negligence

Recognizing the warning signs of substandard maternity care can help families understand what happened and why. While every case is different, certain patterns of negligence appear repeatedly in the claims we handle.

Failure to properly monitor a mother’s vital signs or a baby’s heart rate during labor ranks among the most common triggers for these cases. Providers are trained to recognize signs of fetal distress, maternal hemorrhage, and other emergencies, and a failure to act on those signs quickly can cause irreversible harm. Medication errors, including incorrect dosing of Pitocin or magnesium sulfate, also contribute to a significant share of the maternity negligence claims we review.

Surgical errors during cesarean delivery, improper use of forceps or vacuum extraction devices, and failure to diagnose conditions such as preeclampsia before they become life-threatening round out the most frequent causes we see. Postpartum negligence matters as well. A failure to recognize and treat postpartum hemorrhage or infection can turn what should be a routine recovery into a medical crisis.

Several factors tend to appear across these cases, and reviewing them helps illustrate how negligence takes hold during maternity care:

  • Monitoring failures: Nursing staff or physicians overlook or misinterpret fetal heart rate patterns that signal distress.
  • Communication breakdowns: Critical information about a mother’s condition fails to reach the physician in time to act.
  • Staffing shortages: Understaffed labor and delivery units delay response times during emergencies.
  • Medication mismanagement: Incorrect dosing or timing of labor-inducing or pain management drugs leads to complications.
  • Delayed intervention: Providers wait too long to order an emergency cesarean section despite clear signs of fetal distress.

These patterns are not exhaustive, but they represent the recurring failures our attorneys look for when reviewing a client’s medical records and hospital policies.

Why Choose Wagner Reese LLP for Your Maternity Negligence Case

Families facing a maternity care negligence claim need a legal team that understands both the medical complexity of these cases and the emotional weight they carry. We have spent decades representing Indiana families harmed by medical negligence, and our attorneys bring that experience directly to every maternity care case we accept.

Our approach begins with a thorough review of medical records, often working alongside board-certified OB-GYNs, maternal-fetal medicine professionals, and nursing experts who can speak to whether a provider met the accepted standard of care. We also understand Indiana’s specific procedural requirements for medical malpractice claims, including the medical review panel process that must be completed before certain cases can proceed to court.

A Team That Treats Every Family With Care

We know that pursuing a legal claim while caring for an injured child or recovering from a traumatic delivery is not easy. Our attorneys handle the legal work so families can focus on their health and their newborn. We communicate clearly throughout the process, explain what to expect at each stage, and pursue the full compensation our clients deserve for medical expenses, long-term care needs, lost income, and the pain these injuries cause.

Maternal health outcomes remain a serious concern nationally. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 649 women died of maternal causes in the United States in 2024, and maternal mortality rates were highest among women age 40 and older. These figures reflect the ongoing need for vigilant, high-quality maternity care, and they underscore why accountability matters when that care falls short. Our firm has represented families throughout Indianapolis and across the state in cases involving delivery room errors and other forms of maternity negligence.

Contact Wagner Reese LLP About Your Case Today

If you believe you or your baby suffered harm because a doctor, nurse, or hospital failed to provide appropriate maternity care, you do not have to face the aftermath alone. Our Indianapolis attorneys are ready to review your medical records, consult with qualified experts, and explain your legal options in plain language. We understand how personal and painful these cases are, and we approach every client’s situation with the seriousness it deserves.

Wagner Reese LLP  has helped Indiana families pursue accountability for maternity care negligence for years, and we are prepared to put that experience to work for you. Reach out through our contact form today to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help you move forward.