Birth Injury

The process of human birth under normal healthy conditions involves much force on the baby:

• Compression in the tight birth canal

• Pressure from the birth contractions

• Twisting as it travels through the birth canal

• Traction as the doctor or midwife pulls on the baby to help it out

In the overwhelming majority of cases, these forces are harmless because the baby is more or less built to deal with them. The skull bones are not in a fixed position yet and can move and bend as the head pushes its way along. The baby’s bones are not hardened fully, and its whole body can usually squeeze through to the outside world without any permanent injury.

Most birth injuries are mild and temporary and some examples are:

• Swelling, bruising or small lumps on the baby’s head

• Temporary weakness in the muscles on one side of the face, usually caused by imperfect forceps use

• Temporary difficulty in breathing, from nerve damage

These injuries usually heal by themselves within a few weeks.

Birth Trauma

This term refers to injuries during birth which have mechanical causes, e.g., over-stretching of ligaments, too hard a compression of the skull, or undue pressure from forceps.

Most birth trauma is resolved at some point, and about half are predictable, and therefore avoidable. Since 1970, the incidence of birth trauma has dropped about 85%. Some of this great improvement is due to using C-sections as an alternative to natural vaginal delivery, instead of using forceps or other surgical instruments.

Risk factors

• Large babies who must move through a birth canal which is too tight

• Forceps or other instrumental deliveries

• Breech delivery

• Too much traction during delivery

• Abnormalities in the baby or mother

• Very premature birth

Severe birth injury is very rare, and causes less than 2% of newborn deaths.

But when it happens, it’s an appalling situation for a new mother, or any parent. Permanent damage can result from a variety of injuries during birth, such as:

• Breathing difficulties which continue for too long

• Damaged nerves

• Impaired blood circulation which deprives the brain of oxygen for too long

The results can be brain damage, partial paralysis, missing reflexes, spinal damage, and many syndromes which have names, well-known or obscure.

Negligence or medical malpractice

In some cases, a birth trauma could have been foreseen and avoided, but wasn’t. Sometimes a medical professional makes a poor decision or neglects to check the baby or mother thoroughly enough.

Treatment and/or management of permanent injury will be lifelong for the baby, and therefore very expensive and usually very painful for the parents.

If your baby has sustained a birth trauma and you think some negligence is involved, you could consult with a birth injury lawyer. Contact a personal injury attorney and we can listen to your concerns and answer some of your questions right away. There would be no obligation because we work on contingency. That means that until we obtain a settlement for you, you’ll owe us no fees.

If there seems to be a situation of medical malpractice, we could investigate further, calling on our medical experts to interview people and gather information. If you’re entitled to compensation because of someone’s negligence, we can protect your interests and represent you, so that you can focus on caring for your baby and yourself.

You can read some frequently asked questions about severe injuries here.