Birth injuries are one of the most sensitive and important subjects to discuss between expecting parents and healthcare providers. Many of them are serious and may impair the development of a baby.
Here, we’ll cover what birth injuries are, what causes birth injuries, their impact, and ways to prevent them.
Definition of Birth Injuries
Birth injury refers to damage that may occur to an infant during the birth process. According to the Chicago birth injury lawyers at Clifford Law Offices, these injuries differ from birth defects in that defects are usually caused by inappropriate development within the womb.
Birth injuries could cause bruises, fractures, or nerve damage, with severity ranging. Brachial plexus injuries are common birth-related nerve injuries concerning the movement of arms and hands, while cerebral palsy affects muscle tone movement functions.
Milder injuries may include superficial cuts or temporary oxygen deprivation that can still be distressing but are typically less severe in long-term consequences.
Causes of Birth Injuries
Birth injuries occur due to several causes, most involving complications at the time of labor and delivery. Difficulties at birth, including oversized babies, premature deliveries, or long periods of labor, can greatly raise the probability of damage.
Medical negligence, in this case, may include using the wrong delivery instrument or an inadequate check of the baby’s vital signs, leading to severe injuries. Other contributors include the baby’s position during delivery, especially in breech deliveries, and health problems related to the mother can bring about complications in the delivery process.
Impact of Birth Injuries
The effects arising out of these birth injuries are many and varying. For the short term, an infant might be affected with facial paralysis, limb weakness, and superficial bruising, among other conditions. However, the long-term effects are far-reaching.
More severe injuries may result in permanent disabilities, such as loss of motor functions or cognitive impairments. These may limit the child in performing daily activities and affect their quality of life.
Further, the stress on the family—both emotionally and financially—could be immense. The parents may have to incur medical bills throughout their lives and would be required to make changes to work and personal schedules to fit in the aid that shall be necessary. The psychological burden aggravates stress and anxiety about the family dynamics in the future of living with a disabled child.
Prevention and Management
Most birth injuries are preventable with proactive prenatal care and careful management during birth. Expecting mothers are advised to seek all possible prenatal care and discuss any potential risk factors of concern with their healthcare provider. This might give room for discussions on the actions to be taken in case the baby is of a certain size or decisions on how to deal with breech positions, possibly opting for cesarean delivery to minimize the risk.
During childbirth, a keen watch has to be taken and medical interventions should be used judiciously. Health care providers must be very careful in how they manage labor and delivery processes, ensuring that any sign of distress gets acted upon very promptly to avert risks of injury.
Managing a birth injury varies widely on treatment due to the specific injuries that were sustained. For example, for physical damages, treatments could be surgical repair of structural problems to ongoing motor function improvement through physical therapy. Developmental problems could be treated through special early intervention programs that may help promote intellectual and emotional development.
Equally important to mention are the emotional support services that families would receive through counseling and access to support groups that would offer advice on how to cope with issues surrounding raising a child who has been injured at birth.
Birth injuries represent a real serious problem of obstetrics, to which much more attention should be paid. Some of the injuries are non-preventable, but some are preventable under proper care and adherence to medical practices during pregnancy and delivery. Effective communication between expecting parents and health care professionals, informed decision-making, and comprehensive postnatal support are critical to the reduction in risks and impacts associated with birth injuries.
