If you are an expectant mother, you likely have many different concerns about your baby’s arrival. Hopefully obstetric trauma should be far down the list – but rather than wait until you are actually in the labor and delivery room, or experiencing an unexpected interruption in your pregnancy journey, it makes sense to educate yourself about the types of obstetric trauma that can affect mothers and babies, so that you can be prepared to take appropriate action without delay if problems arise. If you have already experienced obstetric trauma, or witnessed your baby’s birth injury, you may wish to consider discussing your situation with a lawyer familiar with infant and maternal care injuries. A member of the team at Erin Marshall Law may be able to sit down with you, listen to your story, and offer you perspective based on the specifics of your experience. Call our office at 505-218-9949 today to schedule a conversation.
Types of Obstetric Trauma
Online search engine results for “obstetric trauma” fall into three main categories, each of which can overlap with the others under appropriate circumstances. These three categories are:
- Injury to the infant during labor and delivery – also called birth injury
- Injury to the mother’s body during labor and delivery – also called maternal injury or maternity injury
- Injury to the mother, with potential consequences to the fetus, during pregnancy – also called pregnancy trauma
Birth injuries and maternal injuries or maternity injuries often go hand-in-hand, as the factors that contribute to a difficult labor for the mother can also contribute to a difficult delivery for the baby. With trauma that occurs during pregnancy, much of the impact for the baby may depend on the stage of pregnancy at which the injuries are sustained, as well as the nature and severity of the injuries themselves.
Injuries to Infants During Delivery
Every expectant mother needs to be prepared not just for the joyful arrival of a newborn baby, but for the possibility that this baby’s arrival may be complicated by unexpected difficulties. There is no need to adopt a fearful or dismal outlook, but being aware of some of the more common birth injuries that can result from obstetric trauma can make it easier to watch for early signs of trouble and respond promptly, so that your baby can get needed care without delay.
Common birth injuries and their risk factors include:
- Injuries to the Brachial Plexus: Commonly caused by pressure and pulling at the point where a baby’s shoulder joins his or her trunk, often associated with breech births
- Intracranial hemorrhage: Bleeding beneath the baby’s skull, frequently as a result of intense pressures during birth
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE): A brain-damaging event caused by loss of blood and oxygen to the baby’s brain, often associated with prolonged births and emergency C-section deliveries according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital
- Congenital infections: Typically viral or bacterial (rather than fungal), contracted either in the womb or during passage through the birth canal
Some birth injuries, such as are more likely to show visible symptoms than others, as a rule of thumb, it can often be helpful to watch for signs of lethargy or any imbalance in strength or responsiveness between left versus right side, in the days immediately following birth. Additionally, because the same factors can often lead to both difficult labor and increased risk of birth injuries, you may also wish to consider having your child evaluated for any birth injuries that have a strong association with one or more forms of obstetric trauma that you personally experienced during childbirth.
Physical Injuries in Expectant Mothers
Some of the most heartbreaking pregnancy stories come from incidents in which a pregnant person is physically injured, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Sometimes, of course, these incidents are horrible on their face, for the direct and obvious damage they inflict on an individual’s body. At other times, however, pregnancy trauma can be more insidious. A seemingly minor slip and fall incident, or a car accident from which drivers and passengers appear to walk away unscathed, can nonetheless disrupt the course of gestation.
What To Expect From Pregnancy Trauma
Depending on the type of injury in the stage of pregnancy, physical harm to a woman’s body can sometimes cause the loss of a pregnancy. In some of the most fortunate situations, early labor brought on by pregnancy trauma may still result in the delivery of a living baby, even though the risk of obstetric trauma in the forms of both birth injuries and maternal injuries may be increased compared to a pregnancy that is allowed to develop to full term without interruption.
Early Intervention for Obstetric Trauma
Sometimes early medical attention can affect the outcomes for both the pregnant person and their baby in these situations. To reduce the risk of obstetric trauma, expectant mothers should always seek medical evaluation from a trained healthcare professional after any accident, even if they do not feel themselves to be hurt. If there are obvious cuts, bruises, or pain, especially any hint of cramps, then all the more reason to seek medical assessment without delay, as some interventions have much higher success rates when introduced as early as possible.
Obstetric Trauma in the Labor and Delivery Room
Many expectant mothers are so focused on the health and safe delivery of their babies that they may allow their own health to take a back seat. Others assume this will be the case only to find that the obstetric trauma experienced in their own bodies eclipses even the joy of holding their newborn for the first time. Still others can be taken by surprise by the realities of a difficult labor due to the cultural doos around open discussion of obstetric matters and an old-fashioned belief, even among some medical practitioners, that it is preferable not to communicate too bluntly with expectant mothers, lest they become frightened of the labor process.
Distinguishing Between Unavoidable Accidents and Medical Errors
Regardless of the underlying reasons, it is not unusual for people going through childbirth, especially but not exclusively, those becoming mothers for the first time, to be startled by the sheer amount of damage the entire process can inflict on their bodies, even more concerningly, they very often have no clear way to tell when the obstetric trauma they have experienced is the unavoidable misfortune of a difficult birth versus the outcome of a preventable medical error.
Both of these scenarios may lead to a need for significant follow-up care, the complexity and duration of which may vary depending on the type of injury. However, the latter condition – in which obstetric trauma is caused or compounded by failures on the part of the medical team – may also present a legal right to compensation.
Identifying the Cause of Obstetric Trauma
Because that compensation can often be extremely helpful in addressing medical bills and other expenses arising from obstetric trauma, you may wish to consider having a frank conversation with a medical injury lawyer. At Erin Marshall Law we handle cases related to both infant birth injuries and maternal injuries caused by obstetric trauma, so our Albuquerque team has experience in confronting the often indelicate realities that can arise from mistakes made in the labor and delivery room.
When Is Obstetric Trauma Caused by Malpractice?
Some of the most frustrating tragedies in life arise when terrible things happen and the events are truly no one’s fault. Sometimes, medical professionals do their best, deliver the standard of care with diligence and compassion, and still are unable to achieve positive outcomes for their patients.
At the other end of the spectrum, medical mistakes can allow a relatively simple childbirth to become a source of obstetric trauma with lifelong effects for both mother and baby. If your medical team does not respond promptly to changes in the baby’s heartbeat, if the baby is not examined immediately after birth, or if you yourself are treated with indignity and deprived of clear communication and your right to informed consent throughout the process, those can all be signs of improper conduct by the healthcare professionals in the labor and delivery room with you. Those signs may reasonably cause you to seek additional evaluation of your infant soon after birth, to identify any potential problems they may have overlooked.
Speak With a New Mexico Medical Injury Lawyer
Expectant mothers often look forward to the birth of a child with hope. Few want to dwell on the prospect of obstetric trauma. However, understanding some of the possible types of obstetric trauma and what to watch for can put you in a stronger position to advocate for yourself and your baby. To seek additional support and gain a legal perspective on your birth experience, contact the experienced New Mexico medical injury team at Erin Marshall Law. You can reach our office in Albuquerque by calling 505-218-9949.
