5 Most Common Types of Birth Injuries

What are the common types of birth injury?

There are five common types of birth injury that can occur, though these of course are not an exhaustive list. These injuries range from mild to severe.

The first type is brain injury:

• Bleeding in the brain (cerebral hemorrhage);
• Bleeding in the area where the spinal fluids are produced (interventricular hemorrhage), which often occurs in babies born early or born having a low birth weight;
• Bleeding in the area between the arachnoid membrane and the brain cover (subarachnoid hemorrhage);
• Bleeding between the skull and the skull cover (cephalohematoma); which causes a bump on the head that can last from two weeks to several months;
• A lack of oxygen or blood to the brain during labor and delivery, which can result in mental and physical issues. These problems can range in their severity depending on the amount of time the brain was deprived of oxygen or blood. This is called perinatal asphyxia. This can result in shock, labored breathing, seizures, coma or even death.

The second type of injury is damage to the peripheral nerve, also called a brachial plexus injury. This can prevent arm and hand movement, and it will usually improve in time unless the nerve was torn during the birthing process.

The third type of injury is damage to the cranial nerve and the spinal cord, which can result because of improper rotating, pulling and stretching of the baby during birth. This can result in facial paralysis or other spinal cord injuries – sometimes paralysis of other parts of the body as well.

The fourth type of injury is bone fractures, which usually occur during breech births or when the infants are large in size. Babies are born with 300 bones as opposed to adults' 206 and they fuse together as they age; these bones are soft, especially in the head where they have yet to set, and break easily. Clavicles are known to break during labor.

The fifth and most uncommon injury is an intra-abdominal wound, which is essentially a blunt abdominal injury. It does a lot of damage to the baby's liver and other internal organs.

Many or all of these injuries can be prevented with proper care and attention from your medical providers. However, if your baby has been harmed and you believe it was because of medical malpractice, please contact a birth injury lawyer immediately.

There are certain factors that occur during pregnancy or labor that should be addressed by medical personnel. If they are not addressed, they can lead to birth injuries. Some of these factors are:

• Infants that have grown too large for their due date. If a child has reached 8 lbs. 13 oz., they are considered too large. The medical term for this is macrosomia.
• Prolonged labor
• The mother's uterus cannot handle vaginal birth (e.g., it is too small or not correctly shaped)
• Premature births (e.g., those that occur before week 37)
• Instrumental deliveries (e.g., those that use forceps or a vacuum to help remove the baby from the vaginal canal)
• Nontraditional delivery positions (e.g., a breeched position or when the baby is facing down)
• Pulling or excessive stress on the baby during delivery

Resources to help you hire the best lawyer

• Guide to Cerebral Palsy and Birth Injury Law
• Erb’s Palsy Birth Injury Lawsuits
• Fetal Macrosomia & Medical Malpractice
• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) and Medical Malpractice
• Legal Ramifications of Midwife-Assisted Childbirth
• Proving Medical Negligence in a Birth Injury Lawsuit
• Shoulder Dystocia Birth Injuries
• Stillbirths: Medical Malpractice During Childbirth
• Torticollis Birth Injury Claims & Medical Malpractice
• Umbilical Cord Compression Birth Injury Lawsuits
• Uterine Rupture Lawsuits for Medical Malpractice
• What the Apgar Score Says About Your Baby’s Health
• What’s the Difference Between a Birth Defect & a Birth Injury?
• When is Birth Asphyxia Medical Malpractice?
• Meconium Aspiration Syndrome and Medical Malpractice