Can bowel problems after childbirth be caused by medical negligence?
Within six months of giving birth Nicki James-Eyer was faecally incontinent and over a decade later, is still having problems.
“As she was my first baby, I didn't really know what to expect after the birth. But a few weeks later I could hardly walk," she said.
Her doctor was unsympathetic and simply put it down to the birth. Over the next three months she saw a number of GPs who dismissed her concerns. Finally she was diagnosed with a prolapse of the bowel and given surgery, but this left her incontinent.
She had further surgery in 2000 to enlarge her rectum and solve the incontinence and for a while things were better. She even managed to have a second child by caesarean.
But in 2006 she suffered a bowel infection and now needs further surgery, and her incontinence continues.
Up to one in every 10 new mums have bowel problems as a result of childbirth. But many do not know that they can get help, or where to go.
Mr Charles Knowles, consultant colorectal surgeon, agreed that problems after childbirth were more common than expected. "A number of changes occur to the pelvic floor muscles in late pregnancy due to the physical pressure of the baby. These combined with any trauma (tears or episiotomy) that may occur during delivery can result in weak sphincter muscles and laxity of the pelvic floor causing problems of incontinence."
Deborah Gilbert of the charity Bowel and Cancer Research said: "Childbirth is the commonest cause of faecal incontinence worldwide. "The frequency of occurrence of incontinence and the problems that it causes for the thousands of women who suffer it are greatly underestimated because they are either too embarrassed to come forward or because they feel that doctors will be unable to help them. We are making the first steps to identifying the scope of the problem by running a survey for women on our website. We urge anyone who is suffering in this way to visit the site and complete the survey which we hope will lead to better service provision for women like Nicki in future."
Top ranked medical negligence lawyer Susan Brown from Reading based law firm Boyes Turner said: “We act for a number of women who are faecally incontinent following child birth. Sometimes incontinence can be caused by tears at delivery which involve the anal sphincter muscle. Staff can fail to recognise the extent of the injury at the time of delivery and therefore the damage isn't repaired resulting in incontinence. It isn't always an unavoidable complication of child birth."
If you have suffered faecal incontinence as a result of medical negligence during child birth, contact our specialist medical negligence lawyers to discuss your claim.
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
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