The arrival of a newborn is usually meant to be a happy experience for all concerned. Parents will normally say they don’t care about whether it’s a boy or a girl as long as the baby is healthy. But when there is a problem during childbirth, the health of the baby may be affected throughout the rest of their life.
Significant birth injuries account for less than two percent of neonatal deaths and stillborn children in the US. That statistic does imply; however, that there are still a number of injuries that can occur during childbirth that may not be fatal but can still have long-term effects to the child.
Risk Factor that Can Complicate Childbirth
Risk factors that influence the chance of birth injury are:
Large for Date Babies
Use of mechanical devices like forceps or a vacuum during delivery
Vaginal Breech birth
Excessive Traction (pulling on the baby by hand)
The size of the child can be a problem during childbirth because the physician may have to use excessive traction to pull the baby from the vagina. Excessive traction can cause a fracture to the shoulder or arm and even nerve damage for a baby of any size. Facial injuries and some nerve damage may be caused by forceps used during delivery. A breech birth is when the baby is not in a head-first position and that could cause the umbilical cord to wrap around the baby’s neck and deprive them of oxygen, possibly leading to brain injury.
Birth Injury Prevention
Some of these problems such as the size of the child and the position can be known ahead of time thanks to ultrasound. Preventing problems starts with keeping all of your prenatal appointments. Keep strict watch over your diet and tell your physician about any health concerns while in prenatal care. If an ultrasound shows the baby in the wrong position, there are exercises and other actions that a mother can do to reduce the chance of breech birth. However, if your child does suffer a birth injury, it is essential to speak with a birth injury attorney in New York in order to attain compensation.
For instance, if there is a problem during the delivery of the baby and the baby has been harmed, an experienced birth injury attorney should be consulted by the parents to make sure they have been properly served by their physician, hospital, and support staff, both before and during the birth of their child.
