What Are Common Birth Injuries

• Birth Injury
• Common Birth Injuries

Common Birth Injuries

Birth injuries can range from minor (such as bruising or lacerations during delivery) to severe injuries (such as brain injury or spinal cord injury). Fractures and soft tissue injuries are among the most common non-life-threatening birth injuries, while brain injury and intracranial brain bleeds are among the most common severe or life-threatening birth injuries.

Common Birth Injuries that Cause Brain Damage

Here are the common types of brain injuries that may occur during the birthing process:

• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE): Oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain during labor or delivery may cause HIE. The severity of this birth injury depends on the degree and duration of blood flow restriction to the brain. HIE is one of the key factors contributing to cerebral palsy.
• Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH): When bleeding occurs in the brain’s ventricles (where cerebrospinal fluid is produced), it is called IVH.
• Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: There is a layer of tissue (“membrane”) that protects the baby’s brain and spinal cord. When bleeding occurs in the area between the membrane and the covering that surrounds the brain (“the sub-archnoid space”) this birth injury may occur.
• Subdural Hematoma: The subdural space is the area between the baby’s brain and the tissue membranes that separate the brain from the skull. Blood vessel rupture in the subdural space can cause a brain bleed, resulting in this birth injury.
• Cephalohematoma: When bleeding occurs between the skill and its covering tissue layer, the baby will develop a bump on the head within a few hours after birth. This type of birth injury occurs due to excessive pressure on the baby’s head during delivery.

Each of these birth injuries to the brain can lead to cerebral palsy. Even if the baby does not have a formal diagnosis of “cerebral palsy”, these brain injuries can cause intellectual, emotional and physical impairments for the baby over their lifetime.

About Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)

Cerebral Palsy: The Most Common Motor Disability in Childhood

“Cerebral” refers to the brain,” and “palsy” refers to the impairment of motor function. According to the CDC figures, cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in childhood. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), resulting from lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, is a serious birth injury that can lead to cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is defined as a group of neurological disorders that may appear in infants or during early childhood if the baby had suffered HIE birth injury or due to congenital or other factors. Brain damage during pregnancy or birthing process can disrupt the brain’s ability to maintain balance and posture and control body movement and muscle coordination.

Common Types of Cerebral Palsy

Medical researchers have classified cerebral palsy into four primary types:

• Spastic Cerebral Palsy: This is the most common type of cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff muscles and abnormal movements. Hemiplegia (affecting the arm and hand on one side of the body); Diplegia (affecting both the legs); and Quadriplegia (affecting arms and legs as well as intellectual ability) are the three major forms of spastic cerebral palsy.


• Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy: This type of CP is marked by slow, jerky, or uncontrollable movements of the arms, legs, hands, or feet, making it difficult for the child to sit erect or walk. Problems with hearing, speech, and breathing control may also occur in children with dyskinetic CP.


• Ataxic Cerebral Palsy: In this case, the child’s body balance and the ability of depth perception are affected. Children with this condition will often have a wide-based gain, unsteady walk, and poor coordination. They will experience difficulties making quick or precise movements or controlling voluntary movements.


• Mixed Cerebral Palsy: When the symptoms of cerebral palsy in a child do not conform to a single type of CP, but combine the symptoms of different types of CP, it is called mixed cerebral palsy. For example, these children may have some muscles that are too relaxed, while others that are too tight, causing a mix of floppiness and stiffness.

Cerebral Palsy Classifications

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