Uteroplacental Insufficiency

The placenta is a temporary organ that forms on the upper part of the mother’s uterus during her pregnancy, and it plays an incredibly important role in a baby’s development. Attached to the umbilical cord, the placenta is a source of vital nutrients, hormones, and oxygen that keeps the fetus alive and prepares the mother’s body for pregnancy.

Any complications that affect the placenta’s function can have dangerous ramifications for the baby. When a mother experiences placental insufficiency, her child is at risk for not receiving enough blood, oxygen, and nutrients necessary to thrive.

Placental insufficiency can restrict a child’s growth in the womb, increasing the risk for prematurity, low birth weight, birth defects, and underdeveloped lungs that will lead to respiratory distress syndrome and other critical conditions upon birth.

Among the most serious of complications that can arise from placental insufficiency is hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a neonatal brain injury that stems from a prolonged cutoff of oxygenated blood to the child’s brain. HIE can cause significant developmental delays, seizure disorders, vision impairments, and other birth complications. It is also the leading cause of cerebral palsy.

The risk of a birth injury like HIE dramatically increases when a mother’s placental complications are not properly caught and addressed. When OB-GYNs, nurses, and all other medical professionals fail to catch the signs of a mother’s placental insufficiency, or if they mismanage any labor and delivery complications that follow as a result, it may constitute medical malpractice.

Over the past three decades, the nationally recognized team of birth injury attorneys, registered nurses, and nurse-attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky have established a proven track record of delivering justice for children and families across the United States who have suffered from all types of birth injuries, including injuries that stem from placental complications.

We are prepared to meticulously investigate the circumstances of your case, gather crucial medical records, consult with top medical experts, and fight tirelessly to secure the compensation you deserve for your child’s injury, all at no upfront cost to you.

We represent families and their children in numerous service areas throughout the United States. You can contact us today to schedule your free legal consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005 or by filling out our online request form. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won’t pay any legal fees unless we win your case. We only receive payment once you do.

Uteroplacental insufficiency (or placental insufficiency) is a term used to describe a pregnancy complication where a mother’s placenta isn’t efficiently transferring blood, oxygen, and nutrients. It’s estimated to occur in around 1 in every 10 pregnancies.

The baby’s growth can be stunted when they aren’t receiving the proper nutrients in the womb due to their mother’s placental dysfunction. As a result, they baby becomes at risk for underdeveloped organs and a low birth weight, which can lead to further birth complications.

They are also at risk for developing hypoxia (restricted oxygen flow to the brain) and ischemia (restricted blood flow to the brain), which can cause a brain injury like HIE if the cutoff of oxygenated blood is prolonged.

Because of these risks, healthcare providers should treat placental insufficiency as a medical emergency and quickly assess the best treatment options available to them, including labor induction if it’s safe enough to do so.

The cause for uteroplacental insufficiency isn’t always identifiable. Many different conditions and abnormalities can be the cause; genetic factors can sometimes affect the shape, size, or growth of a mother’s placenta, leading to dysfunction. Other external factors can damage the placenta, such as accidents and certain risky lifestyle choices like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes.

Other times, an underlying pregnancy complication can disrupt placental function. Common complications that can affect maternal blood flow include gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and blood clots during pregnancy.

Healthcare providers are expected to catch these complications during prenatal testing appointments so they can administer treatment. When OB-GYNs, nurses, or other medical professionals fail to catch these complications or fail to give the appropriate treatment, it can lead to a mother’s placental insufficiency and be grounds for medical malpractice.

A mother may carry certain risk factors that may make the possibility of placental insufficiency more likely. Having one or more of these characteristics can jeopardize the health of both the mother and her unborn child.

• Maternal Obesity: Expecting mothers with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher are more likely to develop pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, which can affect placental blood flow when improperly managed.
• Post Term Pregnancy: The placenta naturally depletes after 40 weeks gestation, meaning that when a mother’s pregnancy goes past that point it can deteriorate further and become unsafe for the baby.
• Maternal Infections: Untreated maternal infections can trigger an inflammatory immune response that disrupts placental vascular development.
• Other Placental Complications: Other issues from the placenta, such as placenta accreta where it embeds too deeply within the uterine wall (placenta accreta), or a placental abruption where it prematurely detaches from the uterine lining, can cause damage or dysfunction leading to insufficiency.
• Alcohol & Cigarette Consumption: Alcohol has been proven to damage the blood vessels within the placenta and reduce its size and weight.

Placental insufficiency can sometimes be difficult to detect with no overt signs or symptoms with every case. However, a mother may notice some abnormalities during pregnancy that can point to a problem with her placenta.

One sign of placental insufficiency can be oligohydramnios, which is when there is a lower level of amniotic fluid in the womb than expected for the baby’s gestational age. Oligohydramnios can sometimes indicate that the mother’s placenta is not functioning as expected and should be a sign that doctors should use to test for any placental complications.

Bleeding during pregnancy can also sometimes indicate an internal issue with the placenta, especially later in the second and third trimesters. Light spotting can be normal, but when the bleeding is heavier or occurring frequently, it typically warrants a trip to see an OB-GYN to check for any possible pregnancy complications.

Other signs of placental insufficiency can include limited fetal movement and the mother not gaining much weight over the course of her pregnancy. These two signs can be difficult to spot because it can be hard to discern

Expecting mothers who have given birth before will have an advantage in recognizing signs of placental insufficiency like less fetal movement or less weight gain because they have a previous pregnancy to compare it to.

In some cases, though, the signs of placental insufficiency can mirror those of a greater problem like an ectopic pregnancy miscarriage or stillbirth, depending on what point they appear in her pregnancy. It is important that an expecting mother visits her primary healthcare provider if she notices any of these red flags during her pregnancy.

Placental insufficiency can lead to a number of complications and birth injuries, primarily carrying the most risk for the baby.

When the baby’s access to nutrients is significantly depleted over time, it can cause a fetal growth complication known as intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). IUGR or “fetal growth restriction” refers to a baby who is incredibly small at birth due to stunted growth in the womb after not receiving the sufficient nutrients.

IUGR can cause serious birth complications, including premature birth and a higher risk of organ dysfunction. Placental insufficiency can cause metabolic issues that can lead to a higher output of bilirubin levels, which increases the baby’s risk for jaundice at birth.

Placental insufficiency can also increase the baby’s risk for brain damage at birth like hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

The risk of HIE already becomes higher with placental insufficiency because the baby isn’t receiving the proper levels of oxygenated blood, which can lead to birth asphyxia if this cutoff persists for a prolonged period.

If the baby truly isn’t receiving enough oxygen or blood flow to their brain during labor and delivery, it will be reflected by non-reassuring fetal heart rates on a fetal heart rate monitor. Doctors and medical professionals must keep a close eye on the baby’s heart rate when they suspect a case of placental insufficiency to ensure that they don’t go into fetal distress.

If this does happen, they must move to delivery by either administering labor-inducing medications or preparing for an emergency C-section delivery.

If not carefully monitored, the baby may be born with a hypoxic brain injury from not receiving oxygenated blood soon enough, which can be an early cause of cerebral palsy later in childhood. When these disabilities stem from an uncaught or mismanaged pregnancy complication like placental insufficiency, it can be grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.

To detect placental insufficiency, the medical provider should perform a thorough physical exam of the expectant mother and review her detailed medical history. Periodic Doppler ultrasound screenings can help in early diagnosis of the condition. MRI imaging can also provide valuable information to make a more conclusive diagnosis.

Any placental complication, such as obstructed blood supply and hemorrhages (bleeds) that indicate a higher risk of placental insufficiency, can be identified with MRI films. If the mother is diagnosed with oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid for the gestational age) placental insufficiency should be suspected, and more regular Doppler studies and MRI tests should be performed.

When placental insufficiency is suspected, continuous fetal heart rate monitoring at prenatal testing checkups (as well as during labor) must be performed to detect signs of fetal distress. Detection of any placental abnormality should serve as the first clinical indicator to the medical provider that the baby is not receiving optimal levels of oxygen and nutrients, which may restrict fetal growth and lead to a low birth weight.

In many cases, placental complications like insufficiency can be easily caught and safely managed with proper medical care during prenatal testing. Treatment can vary on the type of complication, but there are typically solutions available to avoid the risk of further complications during pregnancy or during labor and delivery.

Birth injury medical negligence, such as a misdiagnosis or failure to catch early symptoms of a problem, can lead to avoidable birth complications and result in injuries to you or a birth injury for your child.

If a family believes medical negligence worsened a mother’s placental complication leading to a child's birth injury, or even caused the untimely death or the mother, legal support may be an option. A specialized birth injury attorney can review the medical records and circumstances to assess whether a claim exists.

Parents whose children suffer from the long-term effects of their mother’s mismanaged treatment for a placental problem, as well as mothers who were harmed during pregnancy from an untreated placental issue, deserve to know whether it could have been prevented. Our dedicated birth injury lawyers want to help you find those answers and obtain the funds necessary to improve the quality of life for your child.

If your child has been diagnosed with a birth injury and you suspect this may have been caused in part by medical mistakes, Miller Weisbrod Olesky will thoroughly investigate the facts and hold the responsible medical providers accountable by pursuing medical malpractice claims against them.

Sometimes families are hesitant to reach out to a medical malpractice attorney or law firm. They may feel overwhelmed by their circumstances or are worried that a law firm will not be able to help them. But the only way to find out if you have a case is to talk to an attorney who understands how birth injuries can lead to developmental delays and other birth complications that require long-lasting medical support.

A statute of limitations (SOL) is a law that sets a time limit on how long an injured person has to file a lawsuit after an accident. It is essential to understand that statutes of limitations vary based on the type of case and the state where it is filed. For instance, the deadline for birth injury claims is typically different from other claims, such as injury to personal property, fraud, contract disputes, and collection of debts.

Generally, the clock starts ticking on the date the injury occurred. However, there are exceptions to this rule, and in some cases, the statute of limitations starts when a person discovers or reasonably should have discovered an injury. When dealing with government agencies, SOLs can become even more complex.

For example, if the party that injured you was:

• A federal employee
• Employed by a military hospital, Veterans Administration facility, or a federally funded medical entity

You may need to file a birth injury claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). In FTCA cases, claimants must go through certain administrative procedures before filing a lawsuit. In some states, if the negligent party was a local or state government hospital or the doctors and medical providers are employees of a governmental entity, the time period in which you must give "notice" may be shorter.

If your case is filed outside of the statute of limitations, it will typically be dismissed, and you will not be eligible to recover compensation for your injuries. Determining when a statute of limitations begins on your case can be tricky. If you're considering pursuing compensation for a birth injury, contacting an attorney as soon as possible is in your best interest.

Injuries from placental complications can usually be prevented, but it takes a detailed expert review of the facts and circumstances of an infection case determine whether the injury was the result of medical malpractice.

Our Process

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of specialized birth injury malpractice attorneys, nurses and paraprofessionals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. We then gather medical records to determine what happened before, during, and after your delivery. We call in skilled medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused you or your child's injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to complications with your pregnancy or your child's injuries, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors.

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. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we can begin investigating your case and gathering the evidence needed to support your claim.

We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won't pay any legal fees unless we win your case. Contact us today to schedule your free legal consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005 or by filling out our online request form.