The birth of a baby is often a joyful occasion for most people. New mothers and their families look forward to a healthy baby’s birth, mostly if the pregnancy was without complications. One of these unforeseen complications is birth injury.
However, some mothers often discover that their baby had an injury at birth. Birth injuries range from mild swellings, bruising, and lacerations to permanent injuries that can lead to other issues or lifelong disabilities.
What Is a Birth Injury?
A birth injury is the structural destruction of a neonate’s body and functional deterioration due to a traumatic event at birth. Birth injuries occur before, during, or after childbirth and can lead to the baby or mother’s death.
Types of Birth Injuries
These are some of the different types of birth injuries. The order of listing is not dependent on their severity.
- Spinal cord injury
- Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy
- Cerebral Palsy
- Intrauterine fetal demise
- Brachial Palsy
- Kernicterus
- Hydrocephalus
- Vacuum extraction complications
- Erythema and Abrasions
- Subcutaneous Fat Necrosis
How Often Do Birth Injuries Occur?
Over the last two decades, the number of neonatal deaths due to birth injuries or birth traumas have declined. Birth injuries are not in the list of the ten most common causes of death in the neonatal stage.
In the United States, birth injuries account for less than 2% of neonatal deaths and stillbirths. On average, there are about 6-8 neonatal injuries per 1000 baby births.
Causes of Birth Injuries
Generally, babies who are large at birth are more susceptible to birth traumas. It does not mean that birth injuries do not happen to smaller babies occasionally or are avoidable. However, with the progress made medically over the years, the frequency of birth injuries has reduced drastically.
Below are a few reasons for birth injuries:
- Prolonged labor
- Delay or failure to perform a Cesarean section
- Improper use of instruments
- Fetal oxygen deprivation
- Trauma impact during delivery
- Mother’s underlying illness or condition at the time of delivery that is undiagnosed or treated
- Skull fracture
- Untreated severe jaundice
- Fetal health factors like birth position, oxygen deprivation, loss of blood flow, mother to child infection, etc.
- Maternal health factors like obesity, diabetes, disorders, dimension, and shape of the pelvis
Symptoms of Birth Injury
Birth injuries can range from severe and easily detectable ones to mild ones that manifest as the baby grows and develops. Although not all birth injuries are treatable or reversible, early detection will go a long way in the intervention and management.
Birth injury symptoms include:
- Lowered oxygen levels
- Sensitivity to light
- Unusual quietness
- High-pitched crying, grunting, and unusual fussiness
- Skull fractures
- Seizures
- Arched back while crying
- Stiffness and awkward movement
- Absence of Moro reflex
- Trouble with balance
- Lack of neck control or floppiness when holding the baby
- Inability to meet developmental milestones
What Happens if Your Baby Sustains a Birth Injury?
Birth injuries are traumatic for parent(s) and guardians, mostly if somebody could have avoided or prevented the birth injury. In cases where the neonatal injury was a result of medical negligence, what do you do?
Medical negligence can be the cause when a health caregiver made an error in judgment, took the wrong action, or failed to make the right move. It also means that the medical personnel failed to follow procedures that ensure the safety of the patients.
Birth injuries are very traumatic. If you want to file for compensation or for the medical personnel to be penalized, you need the best representation. You will need to have an experienced birth injury Lawyer to work for you.
You will need legal representation so you can file your suits appropriately. Sometimes, hospitals work with physicians on a contractual basis. And the physicians are not considered hospital employees. You would have to file a lawsuit against the doctor and not the hospital itself in such an instance.
As a parent, guardian, or relative of someone who is traumatized by either the mother or baby’s birth injuries or death, you deserve the best legal representation. It would be best if you worked with a birth injury lawyer to get justice and compensation for your child.
Did Your Baby Suffer a Birth Injury? Contact Pinder Plotkin LLC for Help!
There’s nothing more sacred than bringing a new life into the world, making it vital for the process to go hitch-free. Medical practitioners have to ensure that your baby comes out healthy, and if their negligence leads to an injury, you have a right to seek redress in court. To do this, you need a lawyer with birth injury experience, and you’ll get one at Pinder Plotkin LLC. Contact us today for a free consultation.
