Southfield Labor and Delivery Complications Attorney

Childbirth is fraught with potential dangers for both mother and child. Doctors, nurses, and other members of a mother’s labor and delivery teams are responsible for minimizing the risks and protecting their patients. Failing to live up to the required standard of care can lead to serious, permanent consequences.

Identifying and Monitoring Risks During Pregnancy

Although some labor and delivery complications arise unexpectedly, others can be predicted and managed in advance. It’s crucial for a mother’s labor and delivery team to appropriately monitor and respond to prenatal risk factors and signs of distress prior to and at the start of labor.

Potential complications that may be identified before labor begins include:

• Premature rupture of membranes (“water breaking”).
• Pregnancy that lasts longer than usual.
• Abnormal positioning.
• Multiple births, such as twins or triplets.
• Medical conditions that can cause issues with labor or delivery. For instance, a mother with preeclampsia is more likely to experience placental abruption, a condition that can harm the unborn child.

Medical providers should identify these and other potentially problematic conditions before labor begins and respond according to the standard of care for treating each condition.

In other cases, complications don’t arise until after labor begins. Some examples include:

• Amniotic fluid embolism, where fluid surrounding the baby in utero enters the mother’s bloodstream. This condition can be serious or life-threatening.
• Labor that progresses too slowly, which can exhaust the mother, threaten the child’s oxygen supply, or cause other injuries.
• Premature labor, which can threaten a baby’s survival if it begins before the child has developed enough to survive outside the womb.
• Shoulder dystocia, in which the infant’s shoulder gets caught while passing through the birth canal. This can cause injuries to both mother and child.
• Umbilical cord issues, where the cord comes through the birth canal before the baby, a cord is kinked or knotted, or a cord wraps around the baby’s neck.
• A baby too large to pass through the birth canal causes tearing of the uterus or other tissues.

Other issues may occur immediately after delivery, such as excessive maternal bleeding or breathing difficulties in the child. These issues require an immediate, appropriate care team response.

Common Labor and Delivery Complications and Resulting Injuries

While some complications can be addressed and corrected, others can cause severe injuries. Injury risk increases if the attending medical providers don’t ensure proper monitoring of both the mother and child and act promptly to address issues.

Some labor and delivery complications and resulting injuries occur more frequently than others. Common examples include oxygen deprivation, traumatic injuries, and injuries from abnormal fetal positions or presentations.

Oxygen Deprivation

All brains need oxygen to survive. A steady oxygen flow during birth is essential for a healthy newborn.

While in utero, a developing fetus receives all the oxygen it needs through the bloodstream. If blood flow is impaired or cut off during labor and delivery, it cuts off the child’s oxygen supply. Blood flow can be impaired or cut off if:

• The placenta separates too soon (placental abruption).
• The umbilical cord becomes compressed, knotted, or tangled, such as in umbilical cord prolapse or nuchal cord.
• Compressions are too strong, squeezing the umbilical cord, placenta, or baby in a way that cuts off oxygen flow.
• The newborn cannot breathe independently after birth.

Even a short period of oxygen deprivation can cause serious brain damage and even death. Conditions like cerebral palsy, developmental and learning disabilities, impaired hearing or vision, or epilepsy may result from anoxia (lack of oxygen) or hypoxia (reduced oxygen).

Medical teams can use tools like an electronic fetal monitor (EFM) to spot changes in the baby’s heart rate or other activity that could signal a problem. When monitored and read correctly, EFM results can give providers the information they need to respond quickly. Serious harm can result if care teams don’t properly monitor, interpret, and respond to EFM results.

Traumatic Injuries

Traumatic injuries during birth are physically harmful to some part of the infant’s or parent’s body. Common examples include:

• Brachial plexus palsy, also known as Erb’s palsy, which is a condition that results from injury to the infant’s neck and shoulder during delivery.
• Facial nerve damage (Bell’s palsy) and damage to blood vessels, skin, and bones, which may occur if vacuum extractors or forceps are used improperly.
• Broken bones, like a fractured collarbone, which can result from doctors using too much force to deliver the infant vaginally or during a C-section.
• Infections or physical injuries, which can occur from excessive compression during prolonged labor or too-strong contractions. Larger fetal size corresponds with a higher risk of these injuries.

Some traumatic injuries heal quickly. Others cause lifelong motor function problems, ongoing pain, or permanent scarring and disfigurement.

Abnormal Fetal Position and Presentation

Fetal position refers to the direction the baby faces as it begins the birth process. It can be face-up, face-down, or sideways. Presentation refers to the part of the body that leads the way through the birth canal.

The “normal” optimal position and presentation for an infant during delivery is face-down and head-first. The head is typically the largest part of the child’s body; when it leads, the rest of the body has an easier time following. This position also positions the umbilical cord to follow the infant out of the birth canal, reducing the risk of becoming compressed or tangled.

Abnormal presentation or position issues may include:

• A breech presentation or “breech birth,” in which the baby’s buttocks or feet are positioned to come out of the birth canal first. Breech births have a higher risk of injury, including compression of the head or umbilical cord.
• Transverse presentation, in which the baby is positioned sideways with a shoulder leading instead of the head. This position can cause serious neck and shoulder injuries as well as loss of oxygen.

As with other labor and delivery complications, position and presentation issues can be corrected if medical teams spot them promptly. Failing to properly examine and monitor a mother during the early stages of labor can increase the risk of a dangerous fetal orientation.

Seeking Help in a Southfield Labor and Delivery Complications Case

Determining whether a child’s or parent’s injuries resulted from medical malpractice during labor and delivery can be challenging. Often, the answers lie in the medical records from the labor and delivery.

In Michigan, medical malpractice cases ask whether a doctor, hospital, or other care provider failed to meet the “standard of care.” The standard of care is the care a reasonably prudent provider would have given in that situation.

Medical malpractice claims in Michigan are subject to certain special procedural rules. For instance, the time limits for filing a medical malpractice claim in Michigan differ from those that apply to other injury cases. Michigan also has specific notice requirements for these cases, and the state “caps” or limits some types of damages available to successful plaintiffs. The caps change each year to reflect inflation rates.

Whether you’re certain that medical negligence during labor and delivery caused injuries or you simply have questions, don’t wait to talk to an experienced labor and delivery complications lawyer.

Speak to an Experienced Michigan Labor and Delivery Complications Lawyer Today

When labor begins, you may feel a mix of emotions, including both excitement and anxiety. Your joy in meeting the newest member of your family may be tempered with concerns about how you’ll handle the responsibilities of parenting. Whether you’ve dealt with complications or had an easy pregnancy, you trust your medical providers to help you have a safe, healthy labor and delivery.

Medical providers who fail to handle labor and delivery complications appropriately can cause injuries that add additional complications to your family’s future. At Sommers Schwartz P.C., we understand how complex and overwhelming your life can become after labor and delivery complications because we’ve helped many clients face the same challenges. Our experience gives us the perspective we need to provide actionable legal advice and thoughtful guidance.

If you need help after labor and delivery complications cause injury, contact the experienced Southfield labor and delivery lawyers at Sommers Schwartz P.C. Schedule a free, confidential, no-obligation consultation today.