Maternal-Fetal Medicine Expert Witness

Maternal-fetal medicine expert witnesses evaluate the care of high-risk pregnancies, where the mother, the fetus, or both face elevated risk of serious complications. They review prenatal records, ultrasound reports and images, lab results, fetal monitoring data, consultation notes, and hospital admission records to assess whether risks were identified, whether the right testing and surveillance were ordered, and whether the timing of delivery was appropriate.

Cases commonly involving maternal-fetal medicine specialists include failure to diagnose or manage preeclampsia, missed signs of placental abruption, placenta previa, or placenta accreta, failure to detect fetal growth restriction, missed fetal anomalies on prenatal ultrasound, and mismanagement of preterm labor or cervical insufficiency. These cases often involve catastrophic outcomes for the mother, the baby, or both, and they frequently turn on whether a referral to a high-risk specialist should have happened earlier.

The line between general obstetric care and specialist care is often central. A general obstetrician is expected to recognize risk factors such as chronic hypertension, diabetes, prior preterm birth, abnormal growth measurements, or concerning ultrasound findings, and to consult or refer when the pregnancy moves beyond routine management. A maternal-fetal medicine expert can address both questions: what the specialist would have done differently, and whether the generalist should have brought the specialist in sooner.

Ultrasound cases raise their own issues. Anomaly scans, growth scans, and placental assessments depend on image quality, gestational age at the time of the scan, and the interpreter’s skill. Experts review the actual images when available, not just the report, to determine whether a finding was visible and should have been identified. Missed anomaly cases can also give rise to wrongful birth claims, which depend on whether timely diagnosis would have changed the parents’ decisions.

The strongest maternal-fetal medicine experts are board certified in maternal-fetal medicine through the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which requires general OB/GYN certification followed by subspecialty fellowship training. Active practice in a tertiary care center with a high volume of complicated pregnancies adds credibility. Attorneys should look for experience with the specific complication at issue, and in birth injury matters, for an expert who can coordinate with the neonatology and pediatric neurology opinions so the causation story holds together.