Brain-Related Injuries

 Brain-related birth injuries can manifest  in several different ways. Often, brain injuries develop from oxygen deprivation, such as anoxia, hypoxia, birth asphyxia, and perinatal asphyxia. Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a birth injury resulting from oxygen deprivation.

When a brain has been deprived from oxygen, it can react in various ways, such as:

• Brain ischemia occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen and nutrients.
• Brain hemorrhage occurs when blood vessels leak into the brain.
• Electrical responses are what happens when the brain reacts to oxygen deprivation and can impair multiple brain functions. A few common examples include seizures and cerebral palsy.

Additionally, brain-related injuries can happen from other birth injuries such as the growth of newborn jaundice into kernicterus, flooding the brain with bilirubin, and the development of the group B strep infection to meningitis which interferes with electrical communications between the spine and the brain.

The leading brain-related injury in relation to birth trauma is cerebral palsy (CP). CP is estimated to affect around 800,000 children, with 8,000-10,000 new cases diagnosed each year. CP can develop after maternal infections, oxygen deprivation, infant stroke, and infant infection. In many instances, CP could have been eliminated with the corrective preventative measures by physician. For example, if a physician fails to monitor fetal distress and take the appropriate actions, the infant may develop CP. Other instances include:

• Failure to monitor, detect, and treat maternal infections
• Failure to plan and carry out an emergency C-section
• Failure to identify and treat a prolapsed umbilical cord
• Failure to use birth-assisting tools correctly