Birth Injuries

What Is a Birth Injury?

A birth injury is harm that occurs during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or immediately after birth. While some complications are unavoidable, many birth injuries result from medical negligence—when doctors, nurses, or other healthcare providers fail to meet the standard of care expected during prenatal care and delivery.

Medical professionals can significantly reduce the risk of birth injuries by carefully monitoring both mother and baby throughout pregnancy and delivery, recognizing warning signs of complications, making timely decisions about interventions like C-sections, using delivery instruments properly, and providing appropriate postpartum care. When they fail to do these things, the results can be catastrophic.

Birth Injuries to Babies

Birth injuries to infants range from temporary conditions that heal within weeks to permanent disabilities that require lifelong care and support.

• Cerebral palsy – The most common motor disability in childhood, cerebral palsy affects movement, muscle tone, and posture. It’s caused by brain damage that occurs before, during, or shortly after birth—often due to oxygen deprivation. Studies show that about one-third of children with cerebral palsy have limited or no walking ability, and many require hand-held mobility devices. The lifetime medical costs of raising a child with cerebral palsy are estimated to be 10 times higher than for children without the condition.
• Oxygen deprivation (hypoxia or birth asphyxia) – When a baby’s brain is deprived of oxygen during birth, even for a few minutes, it can cause permanent brain damage. Every second counts in those critical first moments of life. Oxygen deprivation can lead to cognitive delays, developmental disabilities, learning difficulties, seizures, and cerebral palsy.
• Brachial plexus injuries (Erb’s palsy) – The brachial plexus is a network of nerves running from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm, and hand. When these nerves are stretched or torn during a difficult delivery—often when the baby’s shoulder gets stuck (shoulder dystocia)—it can result in weakness, loss of movement, or complete paralysis of the arm. Some children recover with therapy, while others never regain full function.
• Fractured bones – Clavicle (collarbone) fractures are among the most common birth injuries, typically occurring during difficult deliveries or when delivery instruments are used improperly. While these fractures usually heal within 7-10 days, babies require careful monitoring for complications and infection. A broken clavicle can also damage the nearby brachial plexus nerves. Skull fractures from forceps or vacuum extraction can be even more serious.
• Facial nerve damage (facial paralysis) – Excessive pressure on a baby’s face during delivery—often from forceps—can damage facial nerves, causing loss of muscle control on one side of the face. This can affect a child’s ability to close their eye, make facial expressions, eat, and eventually develop speech.
• Cephalohematoma – This condition occurs when blood pools under the baby’s scalp due to ruptured blood vessels during delivery. It’s often caused by excessive force during vacuum extraction or forceps delivery. While many cases resolve on their own, severe cephalohematoma can lead to jaundice, anemia, infection, and calcification of the skull.
• Caput succedaneum – Swelling of the soft tissues of the baby’s scalp, often caused by pressure from forceps or vacuum extraction. Most cases resolve within a few days, but persistent swelling can indicate more serious underlying brain injury.
• Spinal cord injuries – Excessive pulling, twisting, or traction during delivery can damage the baby’s delicate spinal cord, potentially causing paralysis below the injury site.
• Brain damage and intellectual disabilities – Caused by oxygen deprivation, traumatic delivery, untreated maternal infections, or failure to address complications like umbilical cord problems or placental abruption.

Birth Injuries to Mothers

Mothers also suffer serious injuries during childbirth when medical providers fail to meet the standard of care. These injuries can be physically debilitating, emotionally traumatic, and require extensive medical treatment.

• Severe vaginal and perineal tears – Third-degree and fourth-degree tears extend deep into the muscles and can damage the anal sphincter and rectum. When not recognized immediately or repaired properly, these tears can cause chronic pain, incontinence, painful intercourse, and require multiple reconstructive surgeries.
• Uterine rupture – A tear in the uterine wall during labor is a life-threatening emergency that can cause severe hemorrhaging, hysterectomy, and maternal death. It’s more common in women attempting vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) and requires immediate recognition and intervention.
• Hemorrhage and excessive bleeding – Postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of maternal death. When medical providers fail to recognize risk factors, monitor blood loss, or respond quickly to bleeding, mothers can suffer organ failure, shock, blood transfusion complications, and death.
• Surgical errors during C-section – Negligent cesarean sections can result in damage to the bladder, bowels, or other organs, infections, dangerous blood clots, and excessive scarring that complicates future pregnancies.
• Infection (sepsis) – Untreated or improperly treated infections during pregnancy or after delivery can lead to sepsis, a life-threatening condition that causes organ failure and can result in death.
• Preeclampsia and eclampsia complications – When healthcare providers fail to properly monitor and treat high blood pressure during pregnancy, it can progress to eclampsia, causing seizures, stroke, organ damage, and maternal or fetal death.
• Retained placenta – When all or part of the placenta remains in the uterus after delivery, it can cause severe bleeding, infection, and require emergency surgery.
• Anesthesia errors – Improper administration of epidurals or spinal blocks can cause nerve damage, paralysis, severe headaches, infection, and other serious complications.
• Pelvic organ prolapse – When pelvic floor muscles are severely damaged during delivery and the injury isn’t properly addressed, organs can shift out of position, causing chronic pain, incontinence, and sexual dysfunction.
• Maternal hypoxia – Oxygen deprivation to the mother during delivery can cause brain damage, stroke, and other catastrophic injuries.
• Psychological trauma (birth trauma and PTSD) – While not always considered in traditional birth injury cases, severe complications, emergency situations, and traumatic births can cause lasting psychological harm including post-traumatic stress disorder, postpartum depression, and anxiety disorders.

Common Causes of Birth Injuries

While some birth complications are unforeseeable, many injuries to mothers and babies result from preventable medical errors:

• Failure to monitor fetal and maternal distress – When healthcare providers don’t properly monitor the baby’s heart rate or the mother’s vital signs, they may miss critical warning signs that require immediate intervention.
• Delayed C-section – When complications arise during labor, doctors must make timely decisions about performing an emergency cesarean section. Delays can result in oxygen deprivation, brain damage, uterine rupture, and maternal hemorrhage.\
• Improper use of delivery instruments – Forceps and vacuum extractors can be lifesaving tools, but when used incorrectly or with excessive force, they can cause skull fractures, brain bleeding, nerve damage, and severe tearing to the mother.
• Medication errors – Administering the wrong medication or dosage during labor, or failing to properly monitor the effects of medications like Pitocin (which induces or speeds up labor), can harm both mother and baby.
• Failure to diagnose or treat maternal conditions – Conditions like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, infections, and placental problems require close monitoring and timely treatment. Failure to do so can have catastrophic consequences.
• Shoulder dystocia mismanagement – When the baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone, immediate and proper action is required to prevent nerve damage to the baby and severe tearing to the mother.
• Failure to respond to umbilical cord problems – Cord prolapse, cord compression, or a cord wrapped around the baby’s neck requires immediate intervention to prevent oxygen deprivation.
• Inadequate postpartum care – Failing to monitor for and respond to postpartum hemorrhage, infection, blood clots, and other complications in the hours and days after delivery.
• Failure to obtain informed consent – Not properly informing patients about risks, alternatives, and complications associated with delivery procedures.

The Lifelong Impact of Birth Injuries

Birth injuries don’t just affect the first days of life—they can create challenges that last forever.

For injured babies, this means ongoing medical care including surgeries, hospitalizations, and specialist appointments, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, special education services and developmental support, assistive devices like wheelchairs, braces, communication devices, and adaptive equipment, home modifications for accessibility, full-time caregiving needs, limited ability to live independently as an adult, and reduced quality of life and lost opportunities.

For injured mothers, the impact includes chronic pain and disability, multiple corrective surgeries, ongoing medical treatment, inability to have more children, loss of bladder or bowel control, sexual dysfunction, psychological trauma and PTSD, lost wages and reduced earning capacity, and strain on family relationships.

The emotional toll on the entire family is profound. Parents face fear, guilt, grief, and the constant stress of managing complex medical needs and care responsibilities.

Compensation for Birth Injuries

California law allows families to seek compensation for the full impact of birth injuries:

• Economic damages – Current and future medical expenses, surgical costs, therapy and rehabilitation, prescription medications, assistive devices and equipment, special education costs (for injured children), home and vehicle modifications, lost wages and future earning capacity, and caregiver expenses.
• Non-economic damages – Physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, reduced quality of life, loss of consortium (impact on marital relationship), and the psychological impact on the family.

For children with permanent disabilities, it’s crucial to work with attorneys and medical experts who can accurately project the costs of care throughout their lifetime. For mothers, compensation must account not just for immediate injuries but for long-term complications, future surgeries, and the lasting impact on quality of life.

Time Limits for Filing a Birth Injury Claim

California’s medical malpractice laws are complex when it comes to birth injuries. Generally, you have three years from the date of injury or one year from when you discovered (or should have discovered) the injury to file a claim—whichever comes first. However, special rules apply to cases involving minors.

The Fresno courts strictly enforce these deadlines, so it’s critical to contact a birth injury attorney as soon as possible. Early action also allows us to preserve crucial evidence, obtain medical records, and consult with experts while the details are fresh.