Whether it is your first pregnancy or not, bringing a child into the world is an exciting event. While not all pregnancies are easy, expecting mothers rely on the medical opinions of their doctors to help them achieve a healthy pregnancy and birth of their child.
However, even if everything is done properly and by the books, this does not prevent issues and complications from occurring. This is especially true when a medical care provider made a mistake during the pregnancy or labor and delivery of the baby.
Common causes of birth injuries
While there is a wide range of reasons and causes for birth injuries, the following are those that are common culprits. To begin, the size of the baby can play a role. Just like it is concerning when a baby is born prematurely and is small in size, a large baby could cause complications during labor and delivery, resulting in injuries to the baby and even to the mother.
Other causes include the size and shape of the mother’s pelvis, difficult labor or childbirth, prolonged labor, abnormal birthing presentation, such as being breech, and maternal obesity. These situations could be the cause of a birth injury, and in some cases, a medical professional could have done something medically to reduce or prevent a birth injury from occurring.
Common birth injuries
Just like there is a wide range of causes, there is also a wide range of birth injuries that could occur. The most common birth injuries include brachial palsy, bruising and marks caused by forceps, caput succedaneum caused by a vacuum extraction delivery, cephalohematoma, facial paralysis due to pressure on the baby’s face causing injury to the facial nerves, fractures caused during the birthing process and subconjunctival hemorrhage.
While some of these are just common occurrences during labor and delivery, others could be the result of medical malpractice. As such, when a birth injury is present after the birth of a baby, parents should be aware of the situation and how to gain more information.
This could provide them with the necessary evidence to move forward with a medical malpractice action. This civil action could help hold a medical professional accountable for the damage that was done to the baby and assist with the recovery of compensation for the damages.
