When preparing to welcome your new baby into the world, you may have thought of everything. You probably decorated their nursery and lovingly prepared adorable outfits for photos. However, have you considered what could happen if something goes wrong?
Birth injury and trauma affect
one in three mothers during labor and delivery. Whether the baby experiences physical injuries or the mother experiences psychological trauma during the birth, it can have a lasting impact. Most people don’t think it can happen to them, especially in a developed country like the United States. Staying aware of the risks can help you if you have a traumatic birthing experience.
What Is Birth Trauma?
Birth trauma can be any physical or psychological harm caused to the mother or baby during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or even in the postpartum period.
Understanding Physical Birth Trauma
Any physical harm done to the mother or baby falls into this category. Mothers can suffer painful perineal tears, pelvic floor muscle damage, or pelvic fractures. Babies may suffer head injuries, spinal cord injuries, soft tissue damage, nerve damage, broken bones, or even damage to other organs.
These physical traumas are usually the result of using force from medical tools to provide compression or traction. In some cases, a lack of oxygen and blood flow can also contribute to birth trauma in infants.
Understanding Psychological Birth Trauma
Psychological birth trauma is when emotional distress and mental health challenges arise from a traumatic childbirth experience. Mothers may suffer from postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions in the days, weeks, and months following the birth.
These conditions usually come about from a fear for the baby’s life or the mother’s fear for her own life. Feeling out of control or having a lack of support are other contributing factors to psychological birth trauma. When a mother has a negative experience with the medical staff, it can shake her. She may experience intrusive thoughts about the birth, engage in avoidance behaviors to forget about the childbirth, become hypervigilant, or have difficulty sleeping.
How Birth Trauma Affects the Parent-Child Relationship
Since birth trauma can come in physical and psychological forms, it affects the relationship between mother and child. Some children may even develop permanent complications resulting from physical birth trauma or birth injury, like cerebral palsy, which is often caused by brain damage incurred during childbirth.
Impacts on Mothers
Mothers often start neglecting their own mental health needs following a traumatic delivery experience. Those who suffer from these conditions may experience episodes of anxiety or panic attacks. They often feel numb or have no interest in any activities they once enjoyed. Frequent flashbacks and recurring memories of the trauma can also arise, and mothers with these experiences tend to isolate themselves from their loved ones.
These upsetting symptoms can make daily tasks incredibly difficult or even impossible to complete, especially while caring for a newborn or any other children in the home. Mothers suffering from birth trauma are unable to care for themselves as well as for their children, which strains the bond they should be building with their new baby. This can also cause issues for the child later on if they have an avoidant mother.
Impacts on the Baby
When birth trauma occurs, it can lead to an increased risk of developmental delays as well as neurodevelopmental disorders. Children who suffer in these ways may be emotionally unstable and struggle to regulate their own emotions. They may also have trouble forming secure attachments to their mothers or other caregivers.
Physically, the injuries they sustain, particularly those that have life-long impacts, can hinder their abilities in the future. This can cause a family hardship in accommodating these needs. While some birth injuries may occur even with the most diligent of care, others are often the result of negligent medical practices.
Is Legal Recourse Possible for Birth Trauma?
Taking legal action for birth trauma, whether physical or psychological, is certainly possible. However, in order to have a valid claim, this trauma must be caused by medical negligence. In other words, it means that the doctors, nurses, or healthcare facility failed to provide the accepted standard of care during pregnancy, labor, or childbirth.
Medical negligence can take many forms, such as failing to recognize the signs of fetal distress or respond to it. Babies must be monitored while the mom is in labor to ensure they are getting enough oxygen. If these levels go too low, emergency interventions must be enacted. Failing to take that step would be considered medical negligence, one that can lead to permanent disabilities or even death.
Another example of medical negligence that can cause birth trauma and injuries is improperly using delivery instruments. Forceps and vacuum extractors must be used correctly or they can cause serious injuries to the baby.
If an emergency arises and the mother or baby is in distress, doctors need to rush to perform a C-section. Delaying this action could have terrible outcomes. These are merely a few examples of the types of birth trauma that could warrant a lawsuit.
What Should You Do If You or Your Baby Experienced Birth Trauma?
Lawsuits that involve birth trauma and injuries are incredibly complex and require medical knowledge as well as an understanding of the laws surrounding these practices. As such, it is vital that if you have undergone a traumatizing birth experience, either physical or psychological, you take the right steps to protect your legal rights.
Gather Evidence of the Birth Trauma
Filing a birth trauma or birth injury claim requires you to present evidence. It helps to organize all of your medical records from pregnancy and after childbirth. If you have photos or videos of the injuries, these should be included.
Consult with a Birth Injury Attorney
Birth injury lawsuits are such complex endeavors that you should never face them alone. In your fragile mental or physical state, it can only serve to overwhelm you even further without legal representation. A birth injury attorney is a personal injury attorney who specializes in this intricate area of the law.
Most will offer a free initial consultation where they will evaluate your case to determine if medical negligence occurred. They will also provide you with your legal options, allowing you to decide the action you want to take.
It is important to feel comfortable with your birth injury lawyer, and one who shows you compassion for your plight and who has a history of successful settlements and verdicts will be a good match.
Investigations and Negotiations
With the help of your birth injury lawyer, you will have an advocate who can help get evidence that may have been impossible on your own. They will look at the records of the medical staff and hospital, hire expert witnesses, and conduct extensive research to build your case. These investigations will allow them to leverage a fair settlement figure and negotiate for it on your behalf.
Filing a Lawsuit
When negotiations cannot produce a fair settlement offer, your birth injury attorney will take the next steps to file a lawsuit. The lawsuit will identify all responsible parties, which may include the doctor, nurses on the aftercare team, or even the hospital itself.
Seeking Proper Compensation for Birth Trauma
When you or your baby suffers birth trauma, it can result in numerous damages. You will wind up with more medical expenses to treat these injuries, especially if they require ongoing care costs. If the injury has caused your baby to have a lifelong disability, you may lose income by being unable to work while caring for their needs.
There are also the emotional impacts of enduring such experiences. As you file your birth injury claim, don’t forget to care about yourself. Your attorney will encourage you to seek mental health support right away, allowing you to feel better again. You’ll be able to seek compensation for the costs of those treatments as well as for the mental anguish, pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life you have endured.
However, it is important to take legal action quickly, as Indiana’s statute of limitations imposes a time limit. This time limit allows for two years from the date of the birth injury, though there are some exceptions. Children under the age of six have until their eighth birthday to file a claim. Additionally, the discovery rule may allow for more time if the injury was not discovered until a later date.
It would be unwise to assume your case may allow for one of these exceptions. Before more time ticks by, make sure you speak with a birth injury lawyer who can assess your case and take charge of all legal aspects in a timely fashion. Failing to bring a lawsuit by the deadline means that you would be barred from seeking compensation, and you don’t want to compromise your case when there is so much at stake.
Image by Engin Akyurt; Pixabay
