A birth injury timeline lists events in order and marks each entry as documented, remembered or still a question. This separation lets a lawyer compare your account with the hospital records and identify gaps for experts to investigate.
Before labour
Note antenatal appointments, scans, test results, diagnoses such as diabetes or high blood pressure, concerns you raised, and any advice you received about reduced movements or other symptoms. Include where care was provided and, if you know, who provided it.
Labour and delivery
Record arrival times, phone calls to the hospital, monitoring, medications, changes of staff, decisions about assisted or caesarean birth, and the time of delivery. Approximate times are fine if you mark them as approximate.
If a support person was present, ask them to write down their own recollection separately, before comparing notes. Independent accounts are more useful than a merged version.
Newborn or postpartum care
Include resuscitation, transfer to a nursery, feeding difficulties, seizures, jaundice, cooling treatment, and what staff told you. If the mother was injured, record maternal complications such as tears, bleeding or infection, along with follow-up care.
Diagnosis and later development
List when concerns were first raised, the tests and scans performed, and when each diagnosis was given and by whom. Record any later explanations about cause, because these can affect how the claim is investigated.
Records versus recollection
Use a simple label for each entry so your lawyer can see its basis at a glance. Differences between your memory and the notes are not unusual and are worth flagging rather than resolving yourself.
- Documented: appears in a record you hold (name the record)
- Recalled: your memory or a witness's memory
- Question: something you want explained or checked
For your next conversation
- Antenatal card or pregnancy health record
- Discharge summaries for mother and baby
- Text messages or call logs from labour
- Names of the support people present at the birth
- A list of questions marked separately from known facts
Common questions
What if my memory differs from the hospital notes?
Record your recollection honestly and note the difference. Do not change your account to match the records. Lawyers and experts compare all sources, and a discrepancy may point to something worth investigating, or may have an innocent explanation.
Do I need complete records before writing the timeline?
No. Start with what you remember and what you already hold. You can request records later, including through health information access processes, and update the timeline as documents arrive, marking which entries are now confirmed.
Sources & further reading
- OAIC: access health information (opens in a new tab)
- Pregnancy, Birth and Baby: labour complications (opens in a new tab)
These references support the topic’s starting points. They do not determine the facts, standard of care or law applicable to an individual matter.