- Those caused by physical trauma
- And those caused by oxygen deprivation
- While birth injury claims have a variety of causes that vary drastically from case to case, they typically all have one thing in common: they began with a childbirth complication that was mismanaged or handled improperly.
We’ve listed some commonly cited birth injury causes for a better understanding. This is not a comprehensive list, and any one of these factors on their own does not guarantee a birth injury outcome.
It is the mismanagement of these types of conditions that can lead to an injury, and an injury during childbirth can lead to:
- Serious medical conditions
- Permanent disabilities
- And disfigurement
- Birth Injuries vs. Birth Defects
“Birth injury” and “birth defect” are commonly confused terms. While they can produce similar outcomes, they differ in substance. As we explained, a birth injury is trauma suffered by an infant during childbirth.
Birth defect describes a physical or chemical defect present at birth, and is usually either inherited genetically or induced by environmental factors. There is not usually a legal cause of action in birth defect cases, unless the environmental cause is something like a dangerous pharmaceutical, which is a different type of litigation entirely.
We’ve listed some commonly cited birth injury causes below:
- Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractor
- Fetal monitoring failures
- Abnormal birth presentation or position (ex: breech or shoulder first)
- Large birth weight
- Umbilical cord prolapse or strangulation
- Failure to progress / prolonged delivery
- Pitocin (induction medication) mistakes
- Vaginal delivery in mothers with small pelvis
- Maternal infections such as Group B Streptococcus
According to the National Vital Statistics Reports, a Division of the CDC, Texas Does Not Specifically Report on Birth Injuries. These Data Reflect Birth Injury Statistics on a National Scale, or General Childbirth Data From the Texas Department of State Health Services.