Is Birth Defect and Birth Injury The Same

• Birth Injury
• Birth Defect vs. Birth Injury

Are Birth Defects and Birth Injuries The Same?

No, birth defect and birth injury are not the same. Several factors distinguish a birth defect from a birth injury. Parents should be aware of the key differences between the two in order to ensure their child receives the appropriate medical care.

Birth defects are defined as structural or functional abnormalities in the developing baby, which occur during pregnancy. Birth defects can range from mild to severe, affecting any part of the baby’s body, such as heart, brain, spine, limbs, face, eyes, or ears. They may impact the baby’s appearance, function, or both.

Birth injuries are defined as any type of harm or damage that the baby may suffer around the time of labor or delivery. Birth injuries are often preventable, and may range from birth trauma (damage to the baby’s head or body during delivery) to birth asphyxia (oxygen deprivation) to contracting a maternal infection, or other injuries.

Whether your child has suffered a birth defect or birth injury will also help determine if medical malpractice was involved, which means you and your child could be entitled to financial damages.

What are the Differences Between Birth Defect and Birth Injury?

Causes

• Birth Defect: The causes of many major birth defects remain unknown, but maternal health, maternal age, genetic factors, medications, and alcohol, tobacco or substance use are all believed to be contributing factors. According to the CDC, increased prevalence of diabetes in women may be an underlying factor in the continued high incidence of birth defects.


• Birth Injury: Although birth trauma and birth complications may occur due to congenital factors, medical negligence is often a key cause or contributing cause of preventable birth injuries.
  
  Delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, improper fetal monitoring, delay in emergency cesarean section, anesthesia errors, improper medications, mistakes during assisted delivery, or post-birth treatment failure may cause birth injuries, such as HIE, which could lead to cerebral palsy.

Diagnosis

• Birth Defect: The CDC has outlined a series of medical tests and procedures that can help diagnose birth defects during pregnancy. First trimester should include maternal blood screen and ultrasound exams. Second trimester should include maternal serum screen, fetal echocardiogram, and anomaly ultrasound. If screening tests indicate an abnormality, further diagnostic tests should be conducted, such as high resolution ultrasound, CVS test (placenta testing), and amniocentesis in exceptional cases. Genetic blood testing is often utilized after birth to determine if a genetic problem caused a particular birth defect.


• Birth Injury: An evaluation of the expecting mother’s medical history and past pregnancies, periodic ultrasound exams, blood and serum tests, and proper fetal monitoring can alert the medical providers to the presence of a on-going or even about to occur birth injury. Accurate and timely diagnosis is the key to preventing or minimizing both the occurrence and the harm of birth injuries. Based on the diagnosis, appropriate medications to treat a maternal condition, labor induction, emergency cesarean section, or other medical strategies can be planned and implemented properly that will altogether prevent or at least minimize the harm of a birth injury.

Timing

• Birth Defect: The development of birth defects usually begins during the early stages of the pregnancy. Data from the CDC shows that birth defects generally occur within the first trimester when the baby’s organs start forming.
• Birth Injury: While some birth injuries may occur during the middle stages of pregnancy, especially in the second or third trimesters, they mostly occur around the time of labor and delivery or just after birth. Premature or low birth-weight babies are at a high risk of birth injury.

Incidence

• Birth Defect: According to the CDC figures, about 3% of all babies (one in 33 babies) in the US are born with major structural or genetic birth defects every year. Birth defects are also the number one cause of infant deaths in the US, accounting for 20% of all neonatal deaths.
• Birth Injury: Research shows that despite advances in medical care, an average of 6 to 8 birth injuries per 1,000 babies still occur every year in the US. Severe birth injuries also account for up to 2% of all infant deaths. Cerebral palsy occurs in up to 4 per 1,000 babies, according to the CDC.

Types of Birth Defects

Some of the common birth defects include:

• Congenital heart defects
• Down Syndrome
• Cleft palate and cleft lip
• Ear defects
• Eye defects
• Microcephaly (abnormally small sized head)
• Muscular dystrophy
• Diaphragmatic hernia (hole in the baby’s diaphragm)
• Hemophilia (defects in blood clotting)
• Esophagus defects
• Spina bifida (malformation of the spine and spinal cord)
• Skull defects
• Abdominal wall and intestinal defects

About Birth Defects

Types of Birth Injuries

Cerebral Palsy – Causes

• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) occurs when the prolonged or severe oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain causes brain damage.
• Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL) or white matter damage may occur due to placental abruption, maternal infection, or other complications.
• Intracranial Hemorrhage or brain bleeds, may be caused by untreated preeclampsia (maternal hypertension), Group B Strep infection, or placental problems.
• Cerebral Dysgenesis or abnormal fetal brain formation may develop because of maternal infections, such as Group B Strep.

About Cerebral Palsy

Other types of birth injuries may include Erb’s palsy (arm paralysis), kernicterus (brain damage from untreated newborn jaundice), spinal cord injury, and assisted delivery device injury such as fractures or nerve injury.

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