ABSTRACT
The Supreme Court has provided clinicians with new guidance relating to what we should disclose to patients when seeking their consent for intervention. Mrs Montgomery was an insulin dependent and diabetic woman in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. Educated and articulate, she was concerned about the risks of delivering a large baby vaginally; her obstetrician estimated a birth weight of 3.9 kg at the 36-week scan. The obstetrician gave evidence that diabetic patients who had been advised of the risk of shoulder dystocia would invariably choose caesarean section, and that Mrs Montgomery in particular would have made such an election. The Supreme Court found that Mrs Montgomery had not been informed of her option for a caesarean section; and that if given that option she would have taken it, and delivered a baby without neurological injury.
