What Constitutes a Birth Injury?
Birth injuries are any damages sustained by a baby during the birthing process. Many of these injuries happen as the medical staff is delivering the baby through the birthing canal. Many babies experience birth injuries that resolve themselves within a short time, but some babies suffer injuries that result in lifelong implications.
These serious injuries include:
- Brain Damage
- Cerebral Palsy
- Depressed Skull Fractures and Other Bone Fractures
- Erb’s Palsy
- Fractured Skull
- Hypoxia
- Meconium Aspiration
- Nerve Damage
- Oxygen Deprivation
- Shoulder Dystocia
- Stillbirth/Death
- Untreated Jaundice
These injuries can be caused by a variety of factors. Improper or inappropriate force applied during birth, for example, can result in permanent shoulder nerve damage like in Erb’s Palsy. Improper monitoring of fetal distress can lead to loss of oxygen or brain function. Even improper use of forceps can lead to skull formations or brain hemorrhaging.
Risk Factors for Birth Injuries
The more difficult the birth, the greater the risk of birth injuries. Some common factors that contribute to birth injuries include:
- A baby whose birth weight is greater than 8 pounds, 13 ounces.
- Babies born before 37 weeks are generally smaller, more fragile and more prone to injury during the birth process than full-term babies.
- The size and shape of the mother's pelvis and birth canal. Some mothers can't deliver a baby vaginally because their pelvises are too small or are the wrong shape.
- A difficult labor and birth.
- Prolonged labor. A long labor puts stress on the baby.
- A baby who is not positioned headfirst.
But having one or more of these risk factors doesn't mean that a baby will suffer a birth injury. With proper prenatal and delivery room care, most babies with risk factors don't suffer any significant injuries during birth.
Medical Errors That Commonly Cause Birth Injuries
The other major factor that places newborns at risk of injury is the actions of the medical professionals involved in caring for them before and during the birth. Medical staff are expected to act according to an accepted standard of care, but sometimes they make mistakes, act incompetently or fail to notice things that they should have seen.
Some of the ways that medical professionals' actions can lead to birth injuries include:
- Poor communication among members of the medical team
- Improperly administered medication
- Failure of midwives or nurses to consult a doctor
- Excessive use of force or improper use of forceps or a vacuum extractor
- Failure to promptly notice and respond to fetal distress, including waiting too long to perform a caesarian section
- Failure to properly diagnose complications
- Failure to notice and treat umbilical cord entrapment
- Failure to diagnose and properly treat bleeding
- Failure to promptly intubate a newborn that needs oxygen.
No Fee Unless We Win
Call Clark Fountain for Help—(561) 922-0258
Clark Fountain's West Palm Beach birth injury attorneys have had the privilege of helping families seek damages from negligent hospitals under the most difficult circumstances. Nothing will stop our attorneys from seeking justice on your behalf. One of our more complex birth injury cases arose out of malpractice committed at a Broward County hospital possessing sovereign immunity because it is a government hospital. After more than a decade of relentless pursuit, our firm secured a $35 million verdict for our clients with a Broward County jury, which allowed them to take care of their child for the rest of their lives. After winning the appeal, however, our attorneys had to seek a “claims bill” through the Florida legislature, which the law says must budget for such a judgment against a state entity. Ultimately, the Governor approved the legislative bill for this family.
We obtain no fee unless you secure compensation for your claim—call our West Palm Beach birth injury attorneys for a free consultation to find out about your legal options.
