Birth Injury Linked to Undiagnosed Maternal Infection: Your Legal Options

Pregnant women worry about a whole range of potential issues that can put themselves and their babies in harm’s way, but maternal infection isn’t talked about nearly as often as issues like shoulder dystocia and breech presentation. However, birth injuries aren’t always loud and obvious. Maternal infections often start quietly, only becoming obvious after they’ve had weeks to develop and cause irreparable harm. Infections like Group B strep and chorioamnionitis can pass to the baby before or during delivery.

When a mother’s infection causes serious harm to her or her baby, medical negligence may be behind it. Learn more now by calling Crandall & Pera Law, LLC today.

Maternal infections and how they cause birth injuries

Not all infections lead to permanent harm. Pregnant women go through extensive testing throughout pregnancy to catch health issues early before they cause serious damage to mother or baby – and in many cases, infections are treatable when caught early enough. Common infections that may lead to birth injury include:

• Group B strep: Pregnant women are routinely tested for GBS late in pregnancy. While there are some movements that encourage women to decline GBS testing because it may lead to antibiotics in labor, the research definitively shows that screening saves lives. When doctors forget to order the test or ignore a positive result, babies are exposed to the infection during delivery. Potential consequences include sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia, cerebral palsy, and long-term disabilities. This is an incredibly preventable cause of birth injuries—women who test positive for Group B strep are given antibiotics intravenously during labor to treat the infection and protect the baby.
• Chorioamnionitis: Chorioamnionitis is an infection of the placenta and amniotic fluid. This is an incredibly dangerous infection because it can cause premature birth. In many cases, the only treatment is prompt delivery of the baby and antibiotics, because every moment that the baby remains in utero means continued exposure to the infection. Signs of chorioamnionitis include maternal fever, high fetal and maternal heart rates, foul-smelling amniotic fluid, and uterine tenderness.
• UTIs and other maternal infections: In addition to infections that are pregnancy-specific, pregnant women are at risk of non-pregnancy-specific Urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, and other illnesses can be transmitted to the baby. In severe cases, potential consequences include premature delivery, anoxia, neonatal infection, serious brain damage, and death.

While there are significant differences between these infections, they have one thing in common. They are generally very treatable with prompt detection and treatment—and that means lives saved and harm prevented.

Obstetricians’ and hospitals’ duty of care

Obstetricians and healthcare facilities have a duty of care to pregnant women, both throughout their pregnancy and during labor and delivery. Pregnancy is an incredibly vulnerable time for women and their babies, and ignoring dangerous symptoms or women’s concerns can lead to preventable harm.

Some of the ways that care providers are expected to decrease the risk of illness to pregnant women and their babies include:

• Screening for infections and following up on abnormal, positive, or inconclusive test results
• Monitoring for signs of infection during labor, as infection can set in quickly and lead to sepsis
• Administer timely treatment, which may include antibiotics, constant fetal monitoring, early delivery, and C-section delivery
• Listening to mothers who report concern for their baby’s safety or have symptoms they are worried about
• Monitoring mother and baby after birth, when they are at risk for serious health concerns

Unfortunately, medical providers can and do fall short in these obligations. When they do, they could cause permanent harm to babies and mothers.

How medical negligence can occur

Maternal infection cases often involve small or easily missed mistakes, rather than obvious errors. For example, a doctor may order a GBS screening and fail to follow up when a patient’s sample is never processed or doesn’t come back from the lab. They may notice that a test is positive but forget to communicate that to the patient, resulting in the mother staying home during labor when they should be at the hospital receiving antibiotics.

They may also fail to recognize maternal infection during pregnancy or labor. Doctors see a wide range of issues throughout their careers, but they also see that the vast majority of pregnancies result in a safe and healthy delivery. When they see certain trends, it’s easy to write off a woman’s complaint of a fever or discomfort—and that type of complacency can lead to maternal or fetal death.

Doctors may also engage in medical negligence by not acting at all or not fast enough. For example, chorioamnionitis can quickly become a medical emergency. If this happens before a baby is full-term, a doctor may attempt to hold off on delivery until it is unavoidable. This gives the baby extra time to develop and let their lungs mature. But if a doctor misjudges and orders a C-section too late, the baby may have already suffered significant brain damage that an earlier delivery could have prevented.

Why are these cases complex?

These cases are complex, which is why it’s important to work with a birth injury attorney with experience in maternal infection cases. Hospitals may take the stance that the infection was unavoidable, that acting earlier would not have changed the outcome, that the mother had an underlying condition, or that treatment was timely even if there was a poor outcome. You need an attorney who can comb through your medical records, identify potential negligence, and find preventable mistakes that may point to malpractice.

Start your birth injury claim with Crandall & Pera Law, LLC

Watching your baby struggle because of a preventable infection is something no parent should ever have to experience. If a doctor’s malpractice has left your baby with serious injuries, you deserve justice. Contact us online or call us today to schedule a consultation.