When a healthcare provider deviates from standards of care, it can lead to pregnancy negligence, a type of medical malpractice. Their errors can rob families of joy, replacing it with a lifetime of expensive medical care. Filing a pregnancy negligence claim can recover financial compensation to use for critical treatment, specialized therapies, and other long-term care.
If your child was injured during birth under suspicious circumstances, you may feel trapped in a loop of “what ifs.” Did your obstetrician or other medical professionals overlooked certain warning signs? Fail to run crucial tests? Make a careless decision that jeopardized your child’s safety?
ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers was founded to help families who have endured this trauma. Our birth injury lawyers can guide you toward answers, legal options, and the resources necessary to care for your child’s needs. Our firm advocates for families like yours to give parents peace of mind. Our clients know that their child is cared for – for the rest of their life.
Defining Pregnancy Negligence and Birth Injuries
Pregnancy negligence refers to healthcare provider mistakes that:
- Occur before or during the labor and delivery process
- Deviate from accepted standards of practice
- Result in harm to the mother, baby, or both.
When doctors, nurses, or other medical professionals fail to monitor or treat a mother and child appropriately, catastrophic birth injuries may result.
A standard scenario involves a medical team overlooking signs of fetal distress or maternal health conditions, resulting in complications that are otherwise avoidable with appropriate care. Healthcare professionals undergo extensive training to recognize risk factors during pregnancy. Their job is to intervene when fetal well-being is compromised, and manage labor in a timely, safe manner.
Medical errors in these arenas can lead to short- and long-term challenges for the entire family. Birth injuries like hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy might require ongoing therapies, assistive devices, and constant medical attention.
ABC Law Centers works with families across the country, and our lawyers have extensive backgrounds in birth injury and medical malpractice claims. Each situation is unique, so it helps to discuss your circumstances with an attorney to see if you meet the criteria for filing a pregnancy negligence lawsuit.
Common Forms of Pregnancy Negligence
Pregnancy negligence can arise from a variety of lapses in medical care, from incomplete prenatal screenings to errors in administering medication. Below are some common ways a healthcare professional’s approach to pregnancy care might fall below the accepted standard of care.
Mismanagement of Maternal Conditions
Conditions such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, or infections like Group B Streptococcus can affect both the mother and baby if they are mismanaged. Healthcare providers have the responsibility to regularly check for such conditions and manage them appropriately.
If the condition is mismanaged and a baby is not delivered in time, irreversible damage can occur. For example, uncontrolled gestational diabetes can lead to macrosomia (excessively large fetal size), which complicates vaginal delivery. Preeclampsia requires frequent testing and early delivery to avoid serious complications.
Failure to Monitor and Treat Fetal Distress
During pregnancy and labor, healthcare providers typically monitor fetal heart rate to catch warning signs of oxygen deprivation or other issues. Fetal distress can signal potential complications like cord compression or placental abruption.
Missing these signals or neglecting immediate treatment can endanger the baby. Failure to address fetal distress may lead to life-altering injuries such as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which can cause cerebral palsy or other neurological impairments.
Inadequate Prenatal Care
Pregnant individuals rely on periodic check-ups and prenatal testing to ensure both mother and baby are progressing well. When a medical provider fails to schedule or conduct routine screenings—like ultrasounds, blood tests, or screenings for chromosomal abnormalities—valuable opportunities to address or prevent complications may be lost.
Inadequate prenatal care can also mean insufficient tracking of the mother’s health, including issues like anemia, Rh incompatibility, or underlying chronic conditions that could affect the pregnancy.
Medication Errors and Mismanagement
Medication management during labor and delivery must be handled very carefully with close monitoring. Prescribing too much Pitocin or Cytotec can cause too many contractions, which can put a baby at risk for not getting enough oxygen.
A healthcare provider’s failure to manage these medications safely can result in catastrophic injuries.
Legal Basis for Pregnancy Negligence Claims
A pregnancy negligence claim centers on the concept that a healthcare provider, hospital, or another responsible entity did not meet the standard of care during pregnancy or delivery.
Medical malpractice lawsuits generally rely on four legal elements:
- duty of care
- breach of that duty
- causation
- damages
While this might appear straightforward, the burden of proof in medical malpractice cases can be substantial. Let’s go through each element.
Establishing the Standard of Care
Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals must provide care that aligns with what similarly trained providers would do under the same or similar circumstances. In pregnancy negligence cases, this might mean:
- Conducting routine testing for common complications, like gestational diabetes
- Monitoring fetal heart rate patterns
- Advising a Cesarean section (C-section) if the baby is in distress or if the mother’s condition demands it
If a healthcare provider’s actions or omissions fall below what other trained and prudent professionals would have done, that’s often the baseline for showing a breach in the standard of care.
Proving a Breach of Duty
Once the standard of care is established, the next step is demonstrating that the provider in question breached this standard. For example, if medical guidelines dictate that a pregnant person with certain risk factors needs specialized imaging, and the provider fails to order it, that omission could be considered a breach. In legal actions, attorneys often rely on medical experts to testify about how the provider should have acted differently.
Causation and Damages
A vital element involves connecting the breach to the harm endured by the mother or child. It is not enough to show that a doctor made an error; the family must prove that this error caused or significantly contributed to the child’s birth injury.
Damages, which might include medical bills, long-term rehabilitation costs, and emotional suffering, flow from that causal link. If the child’s condition can be directly traced to the negligent care, there may be a strong basis for a pregnancy negligence lawsuit.
Potential Compensation in a Birth Injury Case
When birth injuries stem from pregnancy negligence, families may seek compensation to help shoulder the financial and emotional burdens. Potential compensation can include:
- Medical Expenses: This may encompass current and future treatment costs, hospital bills, surgeries, medication, and rehabilitation therapies like physical, occupational, or speech therapy.
- Assistive Devices and Home Modifications: Children with physical or cognitive impairments might need specialized devices (such as wheelchairs) or modifications to the home (e.g., ramps and widened doorways).
- Therapeutic Support and Ongoing Care: This covers services like occupational therapy, speech therapy, and counseling. For severe injuries, long-term nursing care may be needed, including a 24-hour care attendant for life.
- Lost Wages and Caregiving Costs: Parents often miss work to care for an injured child, or might have to hire full-time caregivers.
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation can be sought for emotional distress, mental anguish, and disruption to the family’s life.
Relevant Laws Affecting Birth Injury and Medical Malpractice Claims
Medical malpractice laws differ among various jurisdictions in the United States. While a local birth injury attorney can clarify how statutes and court rules apply in your state, below are several common legal frameworks that might affect a pregnancy negligence claim:
Statutes of Limitations
A statute of limitations sets the time window in which an injured party can file a lawsuit. Once that timeframe expires, courts typically bar claims from proceeding. These time limits often vary from state to state and may also depend on whether the injured party is a minor.
In some places, a malpractice claim must be filed within a certain number of years from the date of injury, whereas in others, the clock might start ticking when the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.
Tolling for Minors
Many states have tolling provisions that allow minors an extended time to file malpractice suits. This means the clock may not begin until the child reaches the age of majority, or until a guardian knew or should have known about the injury.
Tolling statutes reflect the idea that a child should have a fair opportunity to seek legal recourse once they are old enough or once their parent or guardian has discovered the injury’s link to negligent care.
Informed Consent Regulations
During pregnancy and labor, providers typically obtain the mother’s consent before proceeding with medical interventions. If the mother was not properly informed of the risks, benefits, or alternatives—leading her to make decisions without a clear picture of potential outcomes—this oversight could factor into a negligence claim. Informed consent laws vary by jurisdiction.
Emotional and Psychological Considerations for Families
Discovering that a birth injury could have been prevented can intensify the emotional distress families experience. Guilt, anger, and anxiety are common responses. Parents might worry about how their child will cope or question whether they did everything possible during the pregnancy. The journey toward healing often includes psychological support, joining networks of parents who share similar experiences, and accessing therapy.
Legal action sometimes presents a path toward closure, as it provides a structured way for families to seek answers and hold medical professionals accountable. A lawyer familiar with birth injury cases will be attuned to the sensitive nature of these claims, offering empathy and a commitment to addressing concerns at each step of the legal process.
The Birth Injury Lawyers at ABC Law Centers Help Families Nationwide
ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers accepts cases nationwide. Families who contact ABC Law Centers will work with one of our birth injury lawyers no matter where they live in the United States. Each case is handled by our knowledgeable legal team, which understands medical malpractice and has experience with the legal requirements in your jurisdiction. We ensure you have a thorough, hands-on team behind your claim—one that is familiar with local laws and court procedures.
Working with a birth injury lawyer offers an opportunity to ask questions like:
- Were my provider’s decisions consistent with accepted medical standards?
- Was the hospital prepared with adequate staffing and resources?
- Did my child’s injuries result from negligence or a breach of protocol?
Experienced birth injury attorneys can evaluate these factors and let you know if a lawsuit is possible, what the timeline might look like, and what you could expect in terms of compensation.
Advocating for Your Child’s Future
Birth injuries caused by pregnancy negligence transform what should be a joyous life event into an overwhelming ordeal. Families already facing the physical and emotional hurdles of caring for an injured child must also deal with unexpected financial burdens. While these hardships can weigh heavily, you do not have to carry them alone.
ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers is dedicated to helping families handle pregnancy negligence cases. If your child’s injuries stem from a healthcare provider’s failure to adhere to recognized medical standards, you can stand up for your child’s needs. A pregnancy negligence claim may serve as a means to recover financial resources that lighten the strain of medical bills, therapies, and specialized education—while offering a measure of closure.
Taking legal action is often a daunting step, but it can pave the way for the support, resources, and answers that can help you focus on what truly matters—your child’s well-being, growth, and future. Call us at 248-593-5100 or contact us online to speak to a birth injury lawyer near you.
