Medical Negligence

 A difficult delivery, however, is something that an experienced doctor should be able to avoid. Another way that a birth injury happens to your child is from medical negligence, and sometimes medical negligence could be something as simple as a doctor not viewing the imaging materials properly (namely the ultrasound, but other medical images of the baby could likewise suffice) and thus preventing a difficult birth. In fact, most birth injuries happen because of a difficult labor.

Several birth injuries and difficult labors could be prevented just by monitoring the size of the baby in proportion to the birth canal, seeing what position the baby was in weeks before labor, and whether the umbilical cord and placenta were in proper health and in healthy positions. Difficult labors commonly result in Erb’s palsy and the associated arm problems, or in brain injuries such as cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities, or even wrongful death.

Medical negligence could start earlier than that, however. The baby could be malnourished, underweight, or could have a folic acid deficiency if the doctor isn’t prescribing the necessary nutrition and vitamin regimen to the mother. Other examples of medical negligence could be the doctor’s failure to perform the necessary tests.

One of many important tests that the doctor should check for is whether the mother has group B strep infection. If the baby’s birth injury is related to the doctor not performing the right tests, this is an example of medical negligence. Even if the baby is born with a birth defect –something that wouldn’t be considered preventable- and the parents and doctor are seemingly surprised about the state of the baby’s health, this is considered medical negligence (also called wrongful birth). Sometimes the parents are not financially prepared to take care of a child that requires a lot of medical care as a child with a birth defect would, and if the doctor did not give them the proper knowledge beforehand, this is considered medical negligence.