Medical professionals who treated you through pregnancy and at your child’s birth might have made negligent decisions that to lead to a birth injury.
After going through the delivery process, you might be concerned about your baby’s health. Maybe there are physical symptoms you notice in your child or you went through a concerning amount of pain through childbirth. Understanding the symptoms, names, and causes of common birth injuries can help you detect if medical malpractice was committed.
Symptoms and types of birth injuries
There are several injuries that happen because of the tools used, the size of the baby or the position the baby is in during the delivery. This includes injured nerves, fractured collarbone, bleeding underneath a cranial bone, hemorrhage in the eye, and bruising and swelling on the baby’s head.
These injuries often appear moments after the delivery of the child. You might be able to detect them through external bruising and swelling or limited arm or face movements. Many of these injuries only require a little time to heal. But some can cause a child to face side effects of the injuries for the rest of their lives.
Permanent impact of birth injuries
One common condition that can result from a birth complication and lead to a lifelong disability is cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a catch-all term for many disorders that can impact a baby’s brain function and body movement. Limited oxygen flow to the brain of the baby during delivery often causes cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy can also develop because the doctor might not detect that there was a lack of oxygen flow during labor, a mother might have taken a harmful prescription during pregnancy, or there could be bleeding in the child’s brain that goes undetected after birth.
Cerebral palsy might take a while to appear and result in slow development, poor balance, muscle problems, uncontrollable movements, and issues with hearing or seeing. Since cerebral palsy can affect a baby for life, you might be able to seek compensation to make up for the mistakes made by doctors and to help treat your child’s disability for many years to come.
If your baby suffered any type of birth injury, your family deserves to recover damages. An experienced Covington birth injury attorney from The Lawrence Firm, PSC can guide you through your claim.