Birth Injury

What are Birth Injuries and What Can You Do?

Do you believe that your child may be showing signs of a birth injury? Are you concerned about your child’s future and whether or not this injury could have been prevented? Is your doctor, another medical professional, or the hospital to blame? At Birth Injury Center, we work to answer your questions concerning all types of birth injuries, liability, and what you can do next to help your child and yourself as you move forward.

What is a Birth Injury?

By definition, a birth injury is any trauma suffered by a baby during childbirth. Some common birth injuries include but are not limited to Cerebral Palsy, Erb’s Palsy, Shoulder Dystocia, Klumpke’s Palsy, and Infant Brain Damage. So what are these injuries? How do they occur? And who’s to blame? Learn more by visiting our information center below which has information about these debilitating birth injuries.

Birth injuries affect families of all types. Your income level, genetic risks factors, and diligence with prenatal care does little to decrease your risk for birth injuries. No matter what you do and the care you take, your baby is at risk during pregnancy and childbirth. Even the most low-risk pregnancies can result in devastating birth injuries.

What are some of the most common types of birth injuries?

• Cerebral palsy (CP)
• Erb’s Palsy and other nerve injuries
• Brain injuries
• Spinal injuries
• Broken bones

Brain damage is one of the leading causes of birth injuries and can lead to cerebral palsy. This is a group of conditions affecting movement, balance, and posture. Brain injuries can result from lack of oxygen or damage to the brain. When an injury results in brain damage and cerebral palsy, it affects a person’s ability to control his or her muscles. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and in some cases, a victim of a birth injury that includes brain damage could spend a lifetime in a wheelchair.

Perhaps the saddest thing about birth injuries is that they are often 100 percent preventable. No child should be forced to suffer because of improper care during birth. No family should be forced to deal with a lifetime of consequences because of a doctor’s negligence. And yet every year, thousands of lives are forever changed because of birth injuries.

According to data, there are six birth injuries per every 1000 births throughout the world. In the United States more than 2300 babies per month – as many as 76 or more per day – are injured within their first seconds of entering the world.

Three babies per hour are born with birth injuries.

Some of these injuries are mild and babies recover within a few days – sometimes within a few hours. But in other cases, these birth injuries have devastating effects that last a lifetime.

What Can You Do If Your Child Suffers a Birth Injury?

Parents want to do what they can to protect their children. Unfortunately, some parents must live the rest of their lives knowing they were unable to protect their children before they even took their first breath. If you believe your child was injured during birth and is showing signs of a birth injury, you have a right to pursue legal action.

It can take years before there is evidence of a birth injury. Some babies show immediate signs, but others seem healthy until they begin to miss developmental milestones. If your child does not seem to be on target for hitting important milestones during infancy and toddlerhood, a birth injury could be to blame.