Birth injuries and maternity deserts are pressing issues in the realm of maternal health, posing significant challenges for expectant mothers and their newborn children. For families facing these difficulties, legal recourse and advocacy play crucial roles in addressing injustices and ensuring that proper care is available.
What are Birth Injuries?
Birth injury refer to physical harm sustained by a baby during the process of labor and delivery. These injuries can range from minor issues, such as bruising, to severe complications like cerebral palsy, brachial plexus injury, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), brain damage, or death.
Birth injuries often arise from complications during labor, including improper use of delivery instruments, neglect of medical standards, or mismanagement of the birth process.
The following are several such examples:
- Ignoring complaints from mother or not taking them seriously
- Ignoring concerning fetal heart monitor readings
- Ignoring concerning vital signs
- Failing to timely attempt C-section
- System failures, such as understaffing/overwork, or poor communication between doctors, nurses, midwifes and other providers
- Failing to utilize available tools/testing (e.g., CT scans, ultrasound, scalp electrode fetal monitoring, etc.)
- Overuse of Pitocin or similar medications to induce or accelerate labor
- Technological failures
- Medical device failures
Seeking Justice After a Birth Injury
Cohen & Malad LLP has a dedicated medical malpractice group with attorneys and staff who are highly experienced at handling birth injury cases. Legal action and advocacy efforts are needed to affect change. The court system can provide recourse to ensure that families affected by birth injuries are given the support they need. Lawsuits may focus on proving negligence and seeking damages for the harm caused by potential medical malpractice.
Pursuing these cases can help highlight the systemic issue of birth injuries and push for improved standards and practices in maternal healthcare. Advocacy for improved access to maternal care in maternity deserts is equally crucial. By raising awareness and pushing for policy changes, advocates can work to expand healthcare facilities, increase funding for rural healthcare services, and support telemedicine initiatives.
Clients our firm has successfully sought justice for include:
- An expectant mother who made making several trips to the hospital during her pregnancy, complaining of immense and debilitating pain. Hospital staff did not take the woman’s pain and suffering seriously despite numerous complaints. Five months later, it was finally discovered that the woman had appendicitis, which, if properly identified when she complained during those numerous hospital visits, could have been handled properly and safely.
- Representation of parents whose infant died as a result of a hospital staff failing to timely address fetal heart tracings and vital signs, which suggested the baby was in critical trouble.
The Impact of Maternity Deserts
A maternity desert is a geographic area where access to maternal healthcare services is limited or nonexistent. This typically means there are no hospitals or healthcare facilities providing obstetric care, labor and delivery services, or prenatal and postnatal care. As a result, pregnant individuals in these regions must travel long distances to receive necessary medical care, which can lead to increased health risks for both mothers and babies.
There are dozens of maternity deserts throughout the Midwest, including in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. One notable Indiana example is Decatur County. In 2019, the only hospital in the county closed its labor and delivery unit, forcing residents to travel 30-45 minutes to the nearest facility for childbirth.
The effects of living in a maternity desert are profound. Expectant mothers may face longer travel times to access care, leading to delayed appointments and increased risks during pregnancy. Providers in these areas may be understaffed, inexperienced, or overburdened which increases the risk of to both mother and child throughout pregnancy. When a birth injury occurs in a maternity deserts, complications have the potential to be exacerbated even further, especially in emergency situations.
We Can Help
If your family has experienced a birth injury, you deserve justice and a fair settlement. Our experienced birth injury attorneys will vigorously defend and protect families that have experienced serious birth injuries. We also help advocate for health care reform to better protect those most vulnerable to harm.
When our attorneys represent you in a birth injury claim, we will advocate as strongly for you as we would for a member of our own family. We have earned a reputation for being tough in birth injury matters. We negotiate when appropriate, and litigate when necessary, and we have extensive resources available to properly prepare your case and take it to trial.
For a free, confidential discussion of your rights and potential case, contact our birth injury malpractice team now or call 317.636-6481.
