Birth injuries have the potential to alter the lives of families in profound and permanent ways. Apart from injuries sustained by newborns – including brain damage, cerebral palsy, and injuries resulting from C-sections – mothers can also suffer serious injuries when medical professionals fail to provide an acceptable standard of care.
At Hampton & King, our Houston birth injury attorneys fight for victims and families across Texas following preventable injuries. This includes representing mothers who have been injured as a result of negligence during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. If you or your loved one have been harmed by a nurse, physician, or health care provider’s substandard care, you may have the right to pursue a birth injury claim and recover financial compensation for your damages. Birth injuries to mothers may comprise their own claims, or they may be part of cases in which babies also suffer preventable injuries.
There are numerous ways mothers can suffer physical and emotional harm during childbirth. When those injuries stem from negligence, victims have a right to take legal action. Common birth injury claims arising from injuries to mothers include:
- C-Section injuries – C-sections are performed when natural childbirth poses risks to mother and child, or when immediate delivery is necessary to deal with a complication. While C-sections, along with any surgical procedure, pose inherent risks to mothers, those risks can be exacerbated by medical negligence. C-section mistakes resulting in injuries to mothers may involve anesthesia errors, laceration or organ injury, infections, failures to address complications, and hemorrhaging, among others.
- Perineal tears – Tears in soft tissue are relatively common during childbirth, are usually minor, and heal over time. In some cases, severe tears or fissures can be avoided with proper medical care. When doctors fail to address reasonable risks and mothers suffer harm as a result of preventable perineal tears, they can be held liable for their damages.
- Blood loss – Postpartum hemorrhaging may be caused by lacerations during C-sections, forceps extractions, and other procedures performed during labor and delivery. Medical professionals have an obligation to reduce risks of severe blood loss and to take reasonable and decisive action when known symptoms occur in order to prevent injuries to the mother.
- Failure to diagnose – During pregnancy, treating physicians should monitor mothers carefully for signs of potential complications. When they fail to diagnose potential issues a reasonably skillful doctor would identify under the same or similar circumstances, they can be held accountable for resulting damages. Often, failure to diagnose injuries (which can affect both mothers and babies) involve failure to diagnose gestational diabetes, failure to diagnose pre-eclampsia, failure to correctly estimate the size of a fetus, and more.
- Medication errors – Medication administered improperly during labor or delivery can have devastating consequences for both mothers and children. This includes the use of labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin, epidurals, and other medications.
- Emotional injuries – In addition to physical injuries, mothers can also suffer mental and emotional injuries as a result of negligent care provided during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. These emotional injuries, which may stem from their own physical injuries and / or injuries suffered by their child, can have a profound impact on mothers and their futures, and may require ongoing mental health treatment to address. Calculating emotional injuries as part of the damages victims suffer is critical to illustrating the overall toll of medical negligence and securing full and fair compensation.
- Wrongful death – Preventable mistakes made by nurses, doctors, or other medical providers can result in fatal injuries to the mother. Wrongful death cases are the most serious and emotionally tragic consequences of birth injuries, but they can be effectively handled by caring and compassionate attorneys who know how to hold negligent medical professionals accountable.
Proven Experience in Medical Malpractice Cases
Risks of complications and injuries will always be a part of childbirth and medical procedures, but there is no excuse for negligence and substandard care. If you believe injuries you sustained as a mother during childbirth resulted from medical errors that could and should have been prevented, our legal team at Hampton & King is available to review your case and discuss your right to pursue legal action. For a personalized case evaluation, contact us today.
