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When you discovered you were expecting, you probably never imagined being in the situation that you’re in now. Suffering a mishandled birth and you or your baby having to endure subsequent birth injuries is an incredibly traumatic sequence of events and makes what should have been the happiest moment of your life, possibly the worst.
The injuries sustained during birth often change the lives of the child and their family forever. Many mothers struggle emotionally and mentally after a traumatic, mishandled birth – click here to find out more about emotional distress. If the injuries and outcome of the birth could have been changed or were the result of a series of mistakes that could have been avoided, then many parents consider filing a personal injury claim.
In This Post:
Here we’ll look at what you need to know about birth injury claims.
What are the most common causes of birth injuries?
As mentioned above, birth injuries and mishandled births are usually due to a series of mistakes and negligible actions taken by your medical team. These include the following:
- Failing to recognise the baby in distress during birth/labour
- Failing to monitor the baby’s heartbeat correctly
- Delays in getting specialist help or assistance from other medical teams
- Turning away the mother despite reports of concerns and medical issues
- Failing to deal with complications correctly
What kind of injuries are usually considered?
There are many different kinds of injuries that are classed as birth injuries. Ranging from brain damage to cuts and bruising. Here we’ll look at them in a little more detail.
Brain injuries
Clearly, the most devastating, brain injuries are thankfully rare, but they’re not unheard of. They can be caused by:
- Limited oxygen to the baby during birth
- Complete deprivation of oxygen during birth
- Physical trauma to the head and neck
- Infections from the mother that weren’t treated or recognised
Shoulder dystocia
Again, a rare condition but it’s not unknown. Shoulder dystocia occur when the baby’s head is born but a shoulder becomes stuck behind the pubic bone. The issue here is not the baby getting stuck, but rather how it is handled by the team to avoid nerve damage, a lack of oxygen/brain damage and even death.
Broken bones
You may have a claim if broken bones are caused by:
- Excessive pulling or twisting of the baby
- Improper use of forceps/ventouse and other equipment
- Improper handling of the child