Birth Injuries Are Traumatic to the Newborn Child, Mother, Father and Family

The birth injury to a newborn is perhaps the most heartbreaking injuries that human beings face. The birth of a newborn child is a remarkable event by itself. It comes with the promise of a long and healthy life. However, when an obstetrician, nurse midwife or labor and delivery nurse are negligent, this can cause a birth injury, brain damage or birth trauma. The results are devastating to the baby as well as to the parents and siblings.

In particular, the birth injury to a newborn child who has been injured permanently by the negligence of a labor and delivery team has long-term effects on the mother. In fact, too often mothers are injured during child birth; this may well play a role in their ability to bear more children.

The physical effects on a mother who gives birth to a newborn child coupled with a traumatic labor and delivery injury are easily recognized. The mother may suffer from uterine bleeding, bone fractures and bruising, a uterine rupture that may have been caused by an error in the Cesarean delivery, fissures, infection, pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, uterine hyper-stimulation, vaginal tears or even the wrongful death of the mother. Maternal deaths are much more common than one would expect.

In a labor and delivery hospital or setting, these maternal injuries should never occur with properly trained and experienced labor and delivery professionals. Many of these maternal birth injuries require additional surgery, therapy and medication, all of which are a distraction and are costly to the family of the newborn. Many times the newborn baby’s injuries are such that daily medical and nursing attention is required 24 hours a day.

In addition to the physical injuries to a mother who has been injured in child birth as well as the child, there is a mental and emotional component. In many cases of birth trauma, brain damage, cerebral palsy, brachial plexus and other serious and permanent injuries to the newborn child, the mothers who may have also been injured will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or increased anxiety. Mothers who have PTSD may display depressive traits in behavior and may undergo psychological therapy with the help of medication to try to overcome the trauma of the birth and the injury to both mother and child.

Maternal injuries of any kind can be treated. The mothers who have delivered a brain damaged or seriously injured newborn may find different groups that will support mothers of children with specific birth injuries. For example, there are groups that support mothers whose children suffer from cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, brachial plexus injuries and profound brain injury resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy because of the interruption of oxygenated blood flow to the fetus’s brain.

Importantly, mothers who have been injured and have also delivered a newborn baby must be aware of taking care of themselves so they can best provide for their children who most likely will require 24-hour-a-day care and regular if not continuing medical and nursing attention.

Kreisman Law Offices has been successfully handling birth trauma injury cases, maternal injury cases, medical malpractice cases, cerebral palsy cases, traumatic brain injury cases and wrongful death cases for more than 40 years for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died because of the negligence of a medical provider, in and around Chicago, Cook County and surrounding areas, including Robbins, Blue Island, Harvey, Arlington Heights, Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Northfield, River Forest, Schiller Park, Schaumburg, Western Springs, Palatine, Itasca, Chicago (Archer Heights, Mt. Greenwood, Morgan Park, Pullman, Chatham, Grand Crossing, Woodlawn, Washington Park, Canaryville, Little Italy, West Loop, West Town, Ukrainian Village, Humboldt Park), Elmwood Park, Westchester and Berkeley, Ill.