What Are Birth-Related Injuries in Newborns?
Having a baby is a joyous, if at times exhausting, event in anybody’s life. However, this wonderful occasion can become tragic in an instant if your child suffers a birth-related injury that leaves them injured for the rest of their life.
What kinds of injuries can occur during birth, and what can you do if a birth-related injury happens to your baby? This article will cover the basics of birth-related injuries and uncover how you can hold the right people responsible for your baby’s birth injuries.
What Injuries Are Considered Birth-Related?
There are a variety of illnesses, conditions, and injuries that a child can be born with. Some of them can occur due to random mutations or come up because of genetic probabilities. Other issues can be a result of lifestyle. They could also result from other kinds of medical issues that may impact the growth and development of a fetus while in utero.
On the other hand, some injuries that your infant may receive are directly related to the birthing process. Most of the time, an injury will affect a baby’s head, neck, or shoulders, and are less likely to affect other parts of the body (though these extended injuries can also occur).
These injuries can include:
- Broken bones
- Forceps injuries, including bruising and lacerations
- Stress-related injuries due to delayed C-sections
- Shoulder dystocia
- Spinal cord damage
- Product-related injuries
- Medication overdoses
- Erb’s palsy, brachial plexus, or cerebral palsy
- Oxygen deprivation
- Various metabolic disorders
Why Do Birth-Related Injuries Happen?
Birth-related injuries can occur for a variety of reasons. Some of them are natural, while others are obviously the fault of the medical professionals who were supposed to have helped with the successful birthing of your baby.
Natural birthing difficulties may stem from the baby being very large in comparison to the mother’s pelvis. Large babies are more difficult to deliver, and thus may be more susceptible to injuries like bruising. Babies that are in unusual birthing positions may also be more suspectable to birth complications and may suffer from birth-related injuries.
A doctor, nurse, or another medical staff member not recognizing the signs of stress during prolonged labor may not take the steps necessary to prevent birth injuries from occurring. They may use a product to help with delivering the baby that ends up injuring the child, like forceps, which have been known to bruise or cut the baby during delivery. Other various injuries can be caused directly by a medical practitioner’s improper handling of your newborn.
These are often minor injuries that can be treated easily with proper health care response. Your child should be able to recover from cuts, bruises, and broken bones with the right treatments.
Severe Injuries, Neural and Neonatal Injuries, and Death
In the absolute worst cases scenarios, a birthing injury or complication can result in severe life-long injuries. These can be neural issues related to an extended period without oxygen getting to the baby due to birthing complications or the mishandling of a newborn that leads to death.
It is especially important in these cases to hold the necessary parties responsible for injuring your newborn, as you may need to make changes to your vehicle, home, and lifestyle to take care of an infant that will have life-long developmental issues because of a birth injury. If medical negligence caused your child’s health condition, you could get compensated for these unnecessary injuries.
Help with Getting Compensation
If you believe that any of the above injuries have occurred to your newborn due to a hospital or doctor’s negligence, you may want to contact a birth injury lawyer in your area. A lawyer with expertise in this area can help you understand what happened to your baby during birth and hold the right people responsible for your baby’s injuries.
If you reside in Pennsylvania, you may want to contact a skilled birth injury lawyer. If you decide to hire an attorney they can help you identify who or what was responsible for your baby’s injury.
