Riverside Birth Injury Attorney

Common Types of Birth Injuries

A birth injury refers to any harm or damage that occurs to an infant during the labor and delivery process. These injuries can happen due to a variety of reasons, including medical negligence, complications during childbirth, or inherent factors. Birth injuries can have significant long-term consequences for both the child and the family.

Here are some common types of birth injuries:

• Prenatal Misdiagnosis: This refers to situations where medical professionals fail to accurately diagnose prenatal conditions or complications, leading to inadequate or improper prenatal care.
• Cerebral Palsy: Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and coordination. It can occur due to brain damage or abnormal brain development during childbirth.
• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE): HIE occurs when there is insufficient oxygen and blood flow to the baby's brain during childbirth. This can result in brain damage and neurological impairments.
• Brachial Plexus Injury: This type of injury involves damage to the brachial plexus nerves, which control movement and sensation in the arms and hands. It often occurs when there is excessive pulling or stretching of the infant's shoulder during delivery.
• Shoulder Dystocia: Shoulder dystocia happens when a baby's shoulder gets stuck behind the mother's pubic bone during delivery. This can lead to complications such as nerve damage or fractures.
• Paralysis: Paralysis can occur if there is damage to the nerves or spinal cord during childbirth, leading to loss of movement or sensation in certain parts of the body.
• Wrongful Death: In tragic cases, birth injuries can result in the death of the infant during childbirth or shortly after delivery due to complications or medical negligence.
• Brain Damage Caused by Oxygen Loss: If the baby's brain is deprived of oxygen during childbirth (birth asphyxia), it can lead to brain damage, which may result in cognitive impairments, developmental delays, or other neurological issues.
• Spinal Cord Damage: Damage to the spinal cord during childbirth can cause paralysis or other neurological impairments, depending on the location and severity of the injury.
• Premature Birth: Premature birth occurs when a baby is born before 37 weeks of gestation. Premature infants are at a higher risk of various health complications, including respiratory problems, neurological issues, and developmental delays.
• Problems in Labor and Delivery: Various complications during labor and delivery, such as prolonged labor, fetal distress, or improper use of medical instruments like forceps or vacuum extractors, can lead to birth injuries.

Why Do Birth Injuries Occur?

Negligent health providers, as well as decisions of recklessness, omission, or deviation from standard procedure, are responsible for many of the birth injuries that occur in the United States every year. If you or your child suffered an injury caused or contributed to by third-party negligence, protecting your family’s rights means speaking with an attorney. You could be entitled to compensation for your losses and injuries.

Birth injuries caused by medical malpractice can result from various factors during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or postpartum care. Here are some common contributing factors:

• Inadequate Prenatal Care: Failure to provide appropriate prenatal care, including regular check-ups, screenings, and monitoring of maternal and fetal health, can increase the risk of birth injuries. This may involve failure to identify and address risk factors such as maternal infections, gestational diabetes, hypertension, or fetal abnormalities.
• Failure to Recognize Risk Factors: Healthcare providers may fail to recognize or appropriately respond to risk factors that increase the likelihood of birth complications, such as macrosomia (large baby), breech presentation, multiple pregnancies, or maternal health conditions.
• Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis: Incorrect diagnosis or delayed diagnosis of prenatal conditions, fetal distress, or maternal complications can lead to inadequate or delayed medical intervention, increasing the risk of birth injuries.
• Improper Monitoring During Labor: Failure to adequately monitor maternal and fetal well-being during labor, including fetal heart rate monitoring, can result in missed signs of distress or complications that require timely intervention.
• Mismanagement of Labor and Delivery: Inappropriate management of labor and delivery, such as excessive use of labor-inducing drugs, improper use of medical instruments (e.g., forceps or vacuum extractors), or unnecessary interventions (e.g., episiotomies), can increase the risk of birth injuries.
• Inadequate Communication and Coordination: Poor communication or coordination among healthcare providers involved in the birthing process, including obstetricians, nurses, midwives, and other medical staff, can lead to errors or delays in care.
• Medication Errors: Errors in administering medications, including anesthesia or pain management drugs, during labor and delivery can have adverse effects on the mother or baby, leading to complications or birth injuries.
• Surgical Errors: In cases where cesarean section (C-section) delivery is necessary, surgical errors such as improper incision, injury to the mother or baby during the procedure, or post-operative complications can occur due to medical negligence.
• Failure to Respond to Complications: Inadequate response to complications such as umbilical cord prolapse, placental abruption, shoulder dystocia, or meconium aspiration syndrome can result in serious birth injuries if not promptly and appropriately addressed.
• Lack of Follow-up Care: Inadequate postpartum care for the mother or newborn, including failure to monitor for potential complications or provide necessary medical interventions, can contribute to adverse outcomes following childbirth.

Choose the Lawyers at Bostwick & Peterson

Our team has recovered more than $1 billion in settlements and verdicts for our injured clients over the years. We proudly serve individuals in the Inland Empire, including Riverside and San Bernardino, providing elite legal support and help for the injured. Our commitment to our clients is unsurpassed.

If your child has suffered an injury caused by medical malpractice, we encourage you to contact an Inland Empire birth injury lawyer from our highly-rated legal team. We have assisted birth injury victims in recovering the compensation they are entitled to for many years, working throughout the state of California and nationwide to pursue justice for those we represent.