Birth Issues Related to Cerebral Palsy

• Cerebral Palsy
• Birth Issues Related to Cerebral Palsy

Birth Issues Related to Cerebral Palsy

A number of birth issues can eventually lead to the development of cerebral palsy. In particular, birth trauma or birth complications occurring around labor and delivery can put the baby at a serious risk of cerebral palsy. A lack of oxygen (birth asphyxia) to the baby’s brain around childbirth can cause a brain injury called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) injury that is the leading cause of cerebral palsy.

Birth issues that may contribute to this condition include:

Fetal Distress

Fetal distress is a serious birth complication during pregnancy, labor, or delivery where the baby suffers from birth asphyxia or oxygen deprivation. Abnormal fetal heart rate is the most important sign of fetal distress, which can be detected with continuous fetal heart rate monitoring. Non-reassuring fetal heart rate patterns that may indicate fetal distress include:

• Bradycardia – slower heart rate than normal
• Tachycardia – faster heart rate than normal
• Late Decelerations – slower return to the normal heart rate after a contraction
• Variable Decelerations – sudden reductions in heart rate

In addition, the medical provider may detect fetal distress with a non-stress test (NST), which will indicate changes to the baby’s heart rate according to fetal movement. If the baby’s heart rate does not go up and down as normally expected during the test, it’s “non-reactive” outcome, indicating fetal distress.

About Fetal Distress

Labor & Delivery Complications

A premature baby is born well before the completion of the full gestation period. At this stage the baby’s brain and organs are not fully developed. Medical negligence during early delivery can cause brain damage from maternal infection, respiratory problems, low birth weight, high blood pressure, and/or other complications during labor or delivery, leading to cerebral palsy.

About Premature Birth

Abnormal Presentation

During delivery, when the baby’s head emerges first, facing the mother’s back, it is considered a normal presentation. Abnormal presentation may occur when the baby’s bottom (breech position), shoulder (transverse position) or face comes down the birth canal (“presents”) first. Mismanaged delivery during an abnormal presentation may cause fetal distress or birth asphyxia, potentially leading to HIE injury and cerebral palsy.

About Abnormal Fetal Position

Umbilical Cord Complications

Umbilical cord delivers blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the baby from the mother. Birth issues, such as umbilical cord compression, cord entangled around the baby’s neck (nuchal cord) or umbilical cord prolapse (the cord exits the cervix and vagina before the baby presents during delivery) can cause this supply of blood and oxygen to be cut off. This can result in birth asphyxia and brain damage, leading to cerebral palsy.

About Umbilical Cord Problems

Birth Trauma during Assisted Vaginal Delivery

When the baby’s head size is disproportionately larger than the mother’s pelvis or the baby’s body size is larger than average, the doctors and labor and delivery nurses may decide to use forceps or vacuum extractors to guide the baby down the birth canal. Excessive use of force while working with these devices can cause skull and brain damage and brain bleeds to the baby, which could result in cerebral palsy.

About Birth Trauma

Placental or Uterine Complications

Placenta previa occurs when the maternal cervix is fully or partially obstructed by the placental membrane. Sometimes placental abruption may occur where the placenta separates from the uterine wall. In some cases, the uterus may tear or rupture during labor and delivery, causing excessive bleeding which is a medical emergency requiring an emergency c-section. In these situations, the baby may not receive adequate oxygen to the brain, potentially resulting in HIE injury and eventually cerebral palsy especially if there is a delay in delivering by caesarean section.

About Placental Complications

Labor Progress is Slow or Stalled

When labor is prolonged or arrested, the medical team may decide to induce labor contractions using medications, such as oxytocin or Pitocin. Wrong dose of the drug, administering the drug when it was medically ill-advised or failing to monitor the reaction of the baby to the Pitocin can lead to a serious birth injury. Pitocin and oxytocin can cause extremely powerful or long contractions during labor resulting in fetal distress and brain damage, increasing the baby’s risk of cerebral palsy.

About Prolonged Labor

Post-term Pregnancies

When a pregnancy goes beyond 42 weeks with no sign of labor, the placenta may fail to nourish the baby adequately. As a result, the baby’s brain may no longer receive sufficient oxygen supply. In a post-term pregnancy, the expectant mother is also at an increased risk of developing oligohydramnios (a condition where the amniotic fluid volume becomes low). This can cause complications, such as maternal infection, umbilical cord compression, or severe fetal distress, which may eventually lead to brain damage and cerebral palsy.

About Post-Term Pregnancy

Is Your Child’s Birth Injury the Result of Medical Malpractice?

Parents whose children suffer birth injuries want and deserve answers as to whether mistakes by the doctors and nurses contributed to the injury. At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, our award-winning birth injury attorneys have represented families all over the United States in their time of need after a birth injury. We use our skills and expertise to obtain for you and your child a medical malpractice settlement that will help provide specialized medical therapy in order to maximize the quality of life and independence of your child throughout their life.

• Were there signs of birth injury or birth complications during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery process, or presence of risk factors, which were either not recognized or properly treated?
• During the labor and delivery, were there clear indications that the baby was suffering from fetal distress, but appropriate actions were not taken by the maternal fetal specialists, obstetrician or nurses?
• Was there a delay in diagnosis of a likely premature birth that led to later complications, including brain injury?
• Did the medical team fail to order a series of tests to diagnose this birth complication in a timely manner?
• Was the decision to perform a cesarean delivery delayed leading to birth trauma during vaginal delivery or labor?
• Did the neonatal resuscitation team fail to quickly begin important breathing support?
• Should brain cooling (also called “hypothermia therapy”) have been provided to your baby, but the doctors and nurses failed to perform the appropriate tests or ignored the results of the tests?

Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury. At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do, no matter how long or tough your case is.

Registered Nurses and Nurse-Attorneys Are a Vital Part of Our Birth Injury Team…and Yours

Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. But Miller Weisbrod Olesky offers an unmatched number of nurses and nurse-attorney employees support to both the birth injury attorneys and our clients.

Our team of registered nursing staff and nurse-attorneys bring a deep level of medical and personal insight to every client’s case. Our nursing team includes both an experienced labor and delivery nurse as well as an ICU nurse. Working closely with the rest of the team, they investigate the reasons behind a birth injury and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.

Why Should You Talk with the Highly Capable Attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky?

The only way to find out if you have a birth injury case is to talk to a lawyer experienced in birth injury lawsuits. It’s not uncommon that a birth related complication results in a preventable birth injury, including cerebral palsy, but it takes a detailed expert review by a birth injury attorney of the medical records from your child’s birth to determine if the birth injury was the result of medical malpractice.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed lawyers, nurses and paralegals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your child’s potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during pregnancy. We call in documented and proven medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child’s injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to wrongful birth in your case, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors. Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do no matter how long or tough your case is.

Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers