What is Birth Trauma by Law and What Type of Help is Available?
While birth trauma is more common in less-developed countries, it still happens in the United States.
Experiencing pregnancy and birth is a terrifying experience for many women; however, some women experience more traumatic births than others. If you've experienced a traumatic birth, you may be able to take legal action.
Keep reading to learn about birth trauma and how to get help.
What is Birth Trauma?
Birth trauma is when a negative result comes from the negligence of your doctor or hospital staff during labor and delivery. If your doctor or hospital staff failed you in some way, you may be left with birth trauma.
Birth trauma often takes the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the new mother. The outcome is not limited to PTSD, birth trauma can cause complications for the new mother as well, including, but not limited to: injury to the mother or baby during pregnancy, failure to monitor the baby’s oxygen levels (which may result in death), and failure to monitor blood loss (which may result in hemorrhage or bleed out). Additionally, if the mother’s blood pressure is not monitored properly, she may experience a seizure.
If you've experienced a traumatic birth, you may be entitled to legal compensation.
Wrongful Pregnancy
If a mother or couple wants to terminate the pregnancy, it's the doctor's job to ensure the pregnancy is terminated. In some cases, the doctor fails to terminate the pregnancy. This can lead to a pregnancy moving to a point where termination is no longer a possibility. This can also pose an issue because the mother will not be able to take the necessary steps to ensure a healthy delivery if she is unaware that she remains pregnant.
Wrongful Birth
Some parents may choose to end a pregnancy if they know the child will be born with substantial and detrimental birth defects.
If the doctor is aware of possible birth defects and fails to inform the parents, the parents have the ability to sue for wrongful birth. If there's a condition present that would have caused the parents to terminate their pregnancy, the doctor must disclose this information.
How to Get Help
If you've been a victim of birth trauma, you can take legal action.
Before you can gain compensation for your experience, you'll need to consult a lawyer. Since birth trauma is a complex issue, you'll need to have experienced specific events to qualify for a lawsuit. Your lawyer will review your case and decide how to move forward from there. A variety of experiences qualify as birth trauma, so review your case to see if it fits the qualifications. If you're seeking compensation for birth trauma, reach out to us today to see how we can help!