Birth Injury Attorneys

Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, New York City, NY

Birth is stressful for mother and child. Both are pushed to the physical limits of what their bodies can handle--and sometimes beyond. The presence and often the skilled intervention of a trained obstetrician is necessary--what is known as operative vaginal delivery--but if the obstetrician does not properly utilize the tools of the trade, their intervention may lead to a permanent birth injury. In particular, an inappropriate use of forceps and/or vacuum extraction of the baby during vaginal delivery often leads to birth injuries, many of which are permanent.

 

Forceps

Forceps are obstetrical tools that have been in use since the 19th century, when the anesthesia of choice was chloroform. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are a gripping and pulling tool comparable to pliers or salad tongs, and their purpose is to grip and hold the baby to help pull it free during difficult labor. Although forceps are specialized tools designed to protect the baby while applying force, and have undergone a great deal of modification since their introduction, they are still very dangerous to babies. They date from a time when the goal of obstetrics was to extract the baby during difficult labor in order to save the mother's life, while the life of the child was less important.

Obstetrics has changed, and these days the health of the baby is a major concern, but unfortunately forceps still bear the stamp of their origin. Babies extracted with forceps during delivery have a dramatically higher incidence of some types of injury, especially brachial plexus injury and facial-nerve injury.

 

Vacuum Extraction

Vacuum extraction was designed as a more baby-friendly method of helping during difficult pregnancies. It uses a padded suction cup to grip the baby by the head and provide force for extraction. Vacuum extraction has become the preferred method of operative vaginal delivery, largely replacing forceps.

Although vacuum extraction is considerably safer than forceps, it can still result in many serious injuries. In addition to higher incidence of brachial plexus injury, vacuum extraction can have a higher incidence of cerebral hemorrhage, which can lead to significant brain injuries that cause convulsions, palsies, and even death of the infant.

 

Prevention

Although these two methods of extraction are dangerous, the only thing worse is when they are used and fail to deliver the baby, resulting in a need for secondary cesarean section. It is the responsibility of the obstetrician to identify a potentially dangerous delivery and recommend a cesarean before attempting vaginal delivery. Cesarean section without attempted delivery is much safer than cesarean section following an attempted vaginal delivery.

If your child has suffered a birth injury as a result of an intervention in the delivery process, schedule a birth injury consultation with the birth injury attorneys in New York and NYC including Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens at Silberstein, Awad, and Miklos, P.C. today.

 

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
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