You might have had a birth plan complete with music, essential oils, and no epidural. Maybe you had no plan and simply followed your healthcare provider’s advice and instructions as you went through the pregnancy and then delivery of your baby. However it came about, the result was an injury that left you with long-term injuries, pain, and suffering. What should have been a few hours or weeks of pain and irritation from childbirth is now an ongoing issue that affects your life significantly, including your job, your ability to take care of your new baby, and even your interest or ability to be intimate with your spouse. You may have told yourself that nothing can be done, and you must just live with what has happened. While your options may be limited medically, depending on your injury, you do have legal options to hold the provider accountable for their actions that contributed to your injuries. Call Erin Marshall Law at (505) 218-9949 and speak with a New Mexico maternity injury lawyer to schedule a consultation where we may review your case and offer guidance regarding your legal rights.
What Is a Maternity Injury?
A maternity injury, also known as a birth injury, is any injury that occurs to a baby during the birthing process or to the mother during or after delivering her baby. For this article, we will focus on maternity injuries to the mother. These injuries can be physical as well as emotional or psychological. While some maternity injuries are unpreventable, such as when the mother has an unavoidable medical condition or genetic factors that cannot be predicted or prevented, most are preventable. The preventable nature of those injuries means that a healthcare provider may have been negligent in caring for the mother and can be held legally responsible for her injuries as a result.
Maternity Injury Examples
Women can sustain a physical, emotional, or psychological maternity injury. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the birth, she may sustain multiple injuries. Unfortunately, many women are not informed of the risks and potential injuries, so when they experience one, they may believe that it is simply an unavoidable part of childbirth. Being able to recognize examples of a maternity injury may help women know when they have suffered one at the hands of their healthcare provider.
Physical Maternity Injuries
Physical maternity injuries are those that happen to the mother’s body. These injuries include vaginal and perineum tears, pelvic floor injuries, episiotomy complications, uterine rupture, or postpartum hemorrhage. While some of these injuries, such as vaginal tears, may sometimes be unavoidable or may heal without any lasting effect, many times these injuries are preventable. They can cause the mother to have long-term issues such as pelvic pain, pelvic organ prolapse, urinary or anal incontinence, nerve damage, sexual dysfunction, or secondary infertility.
Emotional or Psychological Maternity Injuries
Physical injuries are not the only injuries a mother may sustain during childbirth. She may also be subjected to emotional or psychological maternity injuries. An emotional or psychological maternity injury may include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety or other forms of anxiety, postpartum psychosis, birth trauma, infant or stillbirth loss, grief and loss, or bonding difficulties. Like physical injuries, in some circumstances, these types of injuries may be unavoidable, but in many cases, they are the result of healthcare provider negligence. For example, a woman may experience birth trauma if her labor is taking a long time and her provider insists on giving her a C-section to speed things up.
Potential Causes or Signs of Maternity Injury
Sometimes, the fact that a maternity injury was the result of negligence or medical malpractice is obvious. Other times, it may not be as clear, and a new mother might wonder if a healthcare provider caused her injury or if it was an unfortunate, unavoidable injury. Fortunately, there are some signs and causes of maternity injuries that women and their families can look for to see if there is evidence pointing to negligence.
Physical Injury Signs or Causes
Physical maternity injuries are often easier to prove. These injuries can be documented through the patient’s medical records, physical examinations, scans, and other methods. However, even though they are easier to document, there must be proof that the provider was negligent. The National Library of Medicine describes four legal elements that the patient must prove: the provider owed a professional duty to the patient, the provider breached that duty, the breach of duty resulted in the injury, and damages resulted from the injury.
Potential indicators that a physical maternity injury was caused by the healthcare provider can include:
- Inadequate Prenatal Care: If the mother was not seen for all the prenatal appointments that are typical for pregnancy, those appointments were rushed, her concerns were ignored or brushed off, or she otherwise received inadequate prenatal care, her maternity injury may be due to provider negligence.
- Undiagnosed Prenatal Complications: Undiagnosed conditions such as preeclampsia (a heart-related pregnancy condition which can lead to other heart issues later in life if not diagnosed), gestational diabetes, or maternal infections can all cause birth injuries. While this is a form of inadequate prenatal care, it can also occur even when it appears that the mother was receiving excellent care.
- Medical Malpractice During Delivery: Improper use of delivery tools, defective drugs or medical devices, or delayed or mismanaged C-sections can all cause injury to the mother during delivery.
- Birth Trauma: Emergency C-sections, prolonged labor, poor communication or lack of support from healthcare providers, or having concerns or questions dismissed during labor and delivery can all potentially result in physical injury to the mother.
- Postpartum Complications: Postpartum complications such as blood clots, urinary tract infections, retained placental tissue, complications from anesthesia, or damage to surrounding organs during a C-section can all lead to long-term issues.
Psychological Injury Signs or Causes
Psychological injuries can be more challenging to prove, but they still require the same four legal elements to prove medical negligence or malpractice. While these injuries are more difficult to prove than physical ones, they are not impossible. An experienced New Mexico maternity injury lawyer with Erin Marshall Law may be able to assist you in collecting the evidence needed to confirm your maternity injury claim.
Potential indicators of psychological injuries can include:
- Previous Trauma: Women who have experienced prior trauma, such as sexual trauma, birth trauma, or other medical or surgical trauma, may suffer psychological injuries if their healthcare providers are not communicative and sensitive to the mother’s needs.
- Lack of Social Support: If mothers do not have spouses, friends, family, or other social support, they may experience psychological injuries such as postpartum depression, anxiety, or PTSD. This is because social support provides a buffer against the stress of the physical, emotional, and social changes accompanying pregnancy and childbirth. Without this buffer, women may feel overwhelmed, isolated, and vulnerable. If healthcare providers do not ask about social support and are not alert to signs of postpartum depression or PTSD, they may be negligent.
- Financial Stress: Financial constraints may reduce a woman’s access to adequate prenatal and postpartum care. The provider may be negligent if the provider delays or fails to screen for, diagnose, and treat conditions such as preeclampsia because the mother is short on funds. The provider may also be negligent if they cause the mother to skip or delay necessary prenatal or postpartum appointments because she cannot afford to pay. Additionally, providers who fail to recognize, diagnose, and treat depression or anxiety in the mother due to financial stress may also be found negligent.
- Pregnancy or Birth Complications: Pregnancy or birth complications often cause physical injuries, but they can also cause psychological injuries such as PTSD.
- Hormonal Changes: While hormonal changes are a regular part of pregnancy and childbirth, a medical provider may still be negligent if their actions or inactions cause the mother to experience a maternity injury, even if those hormonal changes partially cause that injury.
- Pre-Existing Mental Health Conditions: Mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, and others that are present before pregnancy may make a woman more susceptible to psychological injury during pregnancy or the postpartum period, particularly if the mother must stop or change her mental health medication for the pregnancy. However, like hormonal changes, medical providers may still be responsible for a maternity injury sustained, even if the mother’s pre-existing mental health condition also contributed.
How to Protect Your Legal Rights After a Maternity Injury
After sustaining a maternity injury, the individual must protect their legal rights. If they do not, they may be unable to pursue a claim and fight for compensation later. There are several steps that individuals can take toward protecting their rights.
Document Everything in Detail
One of the first steps, if not the very first step, in protecting an individual’s rights is to document everything that happened in as much detail as possible. As time passes, and under the stress and strain of pregnancy, delivery, and caring for a newborn, memory can fade or become unreliable. Therefore, the individual must begin documenting what occurred as soon as they realize there may be a problem.
Include details such as the dates and times events occurred, the names and roles of those involved (“my husband, Michael” or “Joanna Davis, a registered nurse in Dr. Jacobs’ office”), and as many other descriptive details as possible. If there were errors, such as medication errors, include details like the medication name and dose, what the error was (wrong medication, wrong dose, etc.), and what resulted from the error. Include the names and contact information of any witnesses or other parties who were present as well.
Gather Evidence
While the individual’s account of what happened will be helpful, other evidence of the maternity injury and the events leading up to it will also be critical to any legal claim. Individuals will need to gather evidence such as their medical records, including prenatal and delivery records, witness statements, and diagnostic imaging. Financial documents can be used to show the economic impact of the injury. Hospital or other facility policies and procedures can help establish the standard of care the individual should have received.
Seek Medical Advice
After a maternity injury, seeking medical advice is another essential step in protecting the individual’s legal rights. This advice can help prevent further complications, preventing the injured individual from suffering more than they need to. This can also provide an expert witness who can testify regarding the extent of the injury, the potential risks and adverse outcomes that could have occurred, and whether the injury resulted from medical negligence. Individuals may also want to consider getting a second opinion to confirm the medical advice they receive.
Consider Consulting a Maternity Injury Attorney
New Mexico does not legally require individuals to hire an attorney to file a legal claim. However, a lawyer who specializes in maternity injuries may be beneficial. They are familiar with the laws, have experience negotiating with insurance companies, and can assist in ensuring that individuals have the documentation and evidence needed to prove their claim. They can fight for and protect the individual’s rights. Many individuals may feel intimidated and overwhelmed when dealing with the other party’s attorneys and insurance company representatives, and having their legal representation may ease those feelings.
Understand Your Rights
Women who have suffered a maternity injury have rights. For example, they have the right to request and review a copy of their medical records or have those records sent to another healthcare provider. They may also have the right to file a claim against the healthcare provider who caused the injury. These individuals may also have other rights, and it is crucial that they know and understand what those rights are so that they do not unintentionally give them up or allow the liable party to ignore those rights. A maternity injury attorney may be able to review those rights with the individual as part of a case review or if they are hired to represent the individual.
Follow Any Legal Advice Provided
If an injured individual consults with an attorney or hires one to represent them, following any legal advice they are given is critical. Legal advice given by an individual’s attorney is intended to protect their rights and the integrity of their claim. If the individual does not follow the advice, they may risk damaging their claim and reducing or eliminating any compensation they may receive.
Act Quickly
NMSA 1978 § 41-5-13 provides that individuals injured by medical malpractice must file their claims within three years from the date of the injury. This is called the statute of limitations. While this may seem like plenty of time, for a mother caring for a child, this time can pass quickly. Once the statute of limitations expires, a claim can no longer be filed. Even if they are unsure they want to or are eligible to file a claim, if an injured individual wants to explore the possibility, they should act quickly to ensure their claim is not barred.
Why You Should Consider Hiring a New Mexico Maternity Injury Attorney
For some women, having a baby is a blissful, beautiful experience. For others, it comes with trauma and injuries that leave a lasting impression. These injuries and the trauma may even make you question whether to have another child. While nothing can change what has happened, the medical provider can be held financially liable for the role they played in what happened to you. By choosing a New Mexico maternity injury lawyer with Erin Marshall Law, you may have legal representation that fights fiercely for your rights, assists you in documenting your injuries and gathering evidence, negotiates with the other party or their insurance company, and demands the compensation you may be entitled to under the law. Call (505) 218-9949 to schedule an appointment and case review.
