Birth complications can often leave newly-delivered mothers with questions about what they or their medical teams could or should have done differently. Because many of the medical interventions used to treat birth complications can themselves also give rise to a secondary set of complications, new mothers can find themselves second-guessing whether they should have accepted a specific treatment vs. pushing for alternative solutions. Labor and delivery teams will often administer Pitocin to expectant mothers when a woman is past her “due” date, or in the final weeks of a pregnancy if there is concern about the health of the mother or the infant.
In some circumstances, Pitocin can be enormously helpful. Used inappropriately, however, Pitocin can increase the risk of certain birth complications. Our birth injury team has seen a wide cross-section of patients recovering from birth complications, and we are prepared to listen carefully and offer a legal perspective. Call 505-218-9949 to reach the Albuquerque office of Erin Marshall Law today and schedule a consultation with a member of our staff.
What Is Pitocin?
Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin sometimes used to induce labor before the labor process begins naturally. According to the Mayo Clinic, the decision to induce labor, whether through administration of Pitocin or another method, usually stems from some concern about the health of the baby, the pregnant person, or both.
Several other methods exist for encouraging the onset of labor, as the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) explains. Sometimes, a combination of the available options may be used together. However, Pitocin is one of the relatively few medical interventions that can be used not only to induce labor, but also to hasten labor that is progressing slowly. Prolonged labor can be both a symptom of birth complications and a potential cause of them, so the risks of using vs. not using Pitocin must be weighed carefully in light of the factors present in each situation.
Risks of Pitocin
While Pitocin has helped many expectant mothers give birth safely, like any medical intervention, the use of Pitocin does come with some risks. Some women have reported that their Pitocin contractions are more painful than those they experience during non-induced labor, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and since childbirth is widely regarded as one of the most painful biological processes in the human species the possibility of increased pain during labor may be an indication weighing against the use of Pitocin in non-urgent cases.
Other potential risks associated with the use of Pitocin to induce labor include:
- Decreased fetal heartbeat (possibly caused by extreme compression during uterine contractions)
- Excessive maternal bleeding
- Uterine rupture
- Increased risk of emergency Caesarean section (C-section)
Some of the risks involved in Pitocin use may be influenced by the same factors that lead medical staff to recommend using synthetic oxytocin in the first place. Whether Pitocin is being used primarily to trigger the onset of labor vs. to hasten a labor that has stalled can also make a difference, not just in the risks involved with Pitocin itself, but in how favorably the risk profile of this oxytocin derivative compares to other potential interventions.
Why Are People Against Pitocin?
Healthcare providers in general are not “against” Pitocin. The use of Pitocin can be controversial among people who are eager to advocate for “natural” techniques for managing birth complications, but it is important to remember that “natural” childbirths have been a leading cause of death among women for much of human history. Even today, the lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications remains concerningly high for women in areas with limited access to modern obstetrics (of which Pitocin is only one example), as demonstrated by a helpful regional breakdown from the data visualization team at Our World in Data. Modern medical interventions, including the use of Pitocin when appropriate, have saved countless mothers and their babies worldwide.
From the point of view of assessing whether the use of Pitocin in a particular situation may have constituted an act of malpractice, usually the question will be not so much whether Pitocin is “good” or “bad,” still less whether anyone is “for” it or “against” it, but rather whether the administration of Pitocin in that situation fit with the standard of practice generally accepted within the medical community, given the indications present in that individual patient’s case. These questions can be highly complex, and for obvious reasons, most people outside the medical profession are ill-equipped to evaluate whether a specific treatment decision aligns with the standard of practice accepted among healthcare professionals.
For these reasons, a medical injury attorney with Erin Marshall Law will often rely on the input of an expert witness to provide context for understanding the standard of practice that applies in a particular case.
How Medical Negligence Cases Involving the Use of Pitocin Work
Although civil tort law does allow for the possibility of injury claims based on intentional wrongdoing or, in some limited contexts and jurisdictions, strict liability, the vast majority of personal injury cases are brought based on negligence, and New Mexico’s Medical Malpractice Act (NMMA) is framed to facilitate recovery in cases where negligence on the part of a healthcare provider leads to patient harm. The NMMA, which governs the grounds that may be cited in medical malpractice lawsuits throughout the state and also establishes what patients or their families must prove to prevail in court, defines malpractice terms that align closely with traditional definitions of negligence, in New Mexico and elsewhere.
Negligence in Non-Medical Cases
In most personal injury cases based on negligence, the plaintiff must prove a series of points known as the “elements” of negligence. The elements build on one another, so a plaintiff must prove all of them to secure a victory in court.
The elements of negligence in non-medical personal injury cases are as follows:
- Duty of care: The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care.
- Breach of duty: The defendant failed to act with the appropriate degree of care.
- Damages: The plaintiff suffered damages (physical injuries, costs of medical bills or property repairs, lost wages due to missed work, etc).
- Causation: The damages the plaintiff suffered were caused by the defendant’s breach of their duty of care.
Some legal sources prefer to separate the “proximate” nature of causation into its own element. Proximate cause means that the plaintiff’s damages would not have occurred had the defendant not breached the duty of care. Others, however, consider showing the plaintiff’s damages to be contingent upon the defendant’s actions to be an essential part of establishing causation.
Negligence in Medical Settings
In most contexts, the defendant’s duty of care is construed as the degree of care an ordinarily responsible person would take to prevent foreseeable harm to another party in the same situation. A breach in the duty of care is then any failure on the defendant’s part to act with a degree of caution appropriate to the circumstances. A medical malpractice case, under NMSA 1978, § 41-5-3(i) (2023), is any case which arises from a healthcare provider’s alleged “departure from accepted standards of health care” when the plaintiff claims that the alleged departure has become the proximate cause of the patient’s injury (usually, but not always, the patient and the plaintiff are the same person). This “departure” is what constitutes the breach in a healthcare professional’s duty of care toward a patient they are treating.
Discuss Your Pitocin Case With a Medical Injury Professional
At Erin Marshall Law, we are familiar with the many risks that both doctors and patients must weigh when it comes to deciding whether to induce labor, whether administration of Pitocin is appropriate under the circumstances, and how to manage any birth complications as they arise. We know that not all birth complications involving the use of Pitocin are signs of medical negligence – and we also know that the inappropriate use of Pitocin can significantly worsen patient outcomes, both for the person giving birth and for the person being born. Call our Albuquerque office today to schedule a consultation with a member of our experienced team. Share your Pitocin birth story with us and let us help you evaluate whether you have a malpractice case. Our number is 505-218-9949.
