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Recent Blog Posts
Should My Doctor Have Prevented My Child From Inhaling Meconium?
Before an infant is born, his bodily waste is sent through the umbilical cord and placenta to be processed and eliminated by the mother’s body. Once a child is born, however, his digestive tract begins functioning and the first poop a child produces is a thick tar-like substance called meconium. For first-time parents who are not expecting meconium, this can be alarming, but it is perfectly normal.
Rarely, an infant will begin pooping during labor. Meconium can be passed while a baby is still in the uterus, causing it to move around in the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. Most of the time when this happens, the baby does not breathe in any meconium or amniotic fluid. But when meconium is inhaled, it can cause serious problems and requires urgent treatment from trained Illinois medical healthcare professionals.
Symptoms of Meconium Aspiration
Babies are at risk of many birth-related injuries. Symptoms of meconium aspiration can be difficult to separate from other, unrelated causes. Doctors must be alert and prepared to diagnose and respond to meconium aspiration quickly and effectively. Symptoms of meconium aspiration include a baby who:
My Doctor Did a Terrible Job Stitching My Perineal Tearing. Can I Sue?
The unfortunate reality for many mothers giving birth vaginally is that tearing injuries can easily occur. The skin of the vagina is biologically prepared to thin and stretch during delivery, but certain situations can make perineal tearing unavoidable. And while perineal tears are usually fairly easy to repair, poor medical treatment can make a mother’s recovery excruciatingly painful, sometimes requiring expensive further treatment and causing irreparable harm.
If your doctor committed a mistake that cause unnecessary perineal tearing, or if they improperly tried to repair perineal tearing, you may be able to take action.
What Kind of Mistakes Cause Unnecessary Perineal Tearing?
Mild to severe perineal tearing is common during delivery. Unfortunately, certain situations can worsen perineal tearing. These include:
Can I Sue an Illinois Doctor for a Botched Abortion?
Abortion has always had a painful stigma for the women who seek it, even when their own lives are at risk. Due to recent political events, this threat may have increased, making it hard for women to talk about having an abortion and to seek the help and emotional support they need. When an abortion goes wrong and a woman is injured, this lack of support can leave a woman feeling like she has nowhere to turn for help.
Tragically, this lead leads to a lack of resources about what a woman can do after a injury resulting from a terminated pregnancy. Whether the pregnancy was terminated for medical or elective reasons does not matter; a doctor still has the same duty to provide a patient with the standard of medical care. Abortion clinics and doctors’ offices that provide abortions are subject to the same malpractice laws that any other doctor is subject to. If you were injured during an abortion, you are not alone. You may be able to take legal action to recover compensation for your suffering.
New Research May Help Grieving Parents Determine Cause of Multiple Miscarriages
Illinois parents-to-be must navigate a large amount of complex information as they prepare to welcome their child into the world. When tragedy strikes and pregnancy ends in miscarriage, parents often feel a challenging combination of grief, confusion, and anger. There may be many questions - Why did this happen? Is anyone responsible? Sadly, parents who try to preempt unhealthy pregnancies by testing for genetic anomalies may risk inadvertently ending the pregnancy when the test itself causes a miscarriage.
New Research from Yale Medicine tries to help grieving parents by looking for answers to difficult questions about miscarriages. If you have suffered from a miscarriage and are wondering whether your healthcare provider’s negligence caused or contributed to the miscarriage, call an Illinois birth injuries attorney.
Miscarriage Testing
One test currently being researched offers to tell parents whether they are experiencing a miscarriage the same day concerning symptoms appear. While the test is still in development, it offers promising insights into whether a miscarriage is happening and why some women suffer from multiple miscarriages. Currently, testing to determine why a miscarriage happened - and even whether a miscarriage is happening - can take weeks, leaving parents in limbo. This test will give women a same-day answer as to whether a miscarriage is happening by detecting levels of alpha-fetoprotein, or AFP. AFP only comes from fetal blood and, if present in the test, indicates pregnancy loss is occurring.
Can Forceps Injure a Mother During Childbirth?
Doctors, nurses, midwives, and other childbirth medical specialists have an array of tools at their disposal to aid in ensuring babies are born safely. While the vast majority of deliveries do go smoothly, sometimes urgent intervention is needed. Delivering mothers have no choice but to put their faith in their attending doctor’s skill and knowledge.
Tragically, not all doctors are as educated or dedicated to their patients’ well-being as they should be. And even when a mistake is just that - an accident - the results can be devastating. One kind of tool that has the potential to cause great harm to both mother and child during delivery is forceps. Forceps look like a large pair of tongs that are meant to fit around a child’s head to help guide them out of the birth canal. While forceps save lives, when used incorrectly, they can cause several types of maternal injuries.
Does Stem Cell Therapy Show Promise for Children with Autism?
The process of pregnancy and birth ends well for most children, but it also presents a long period of complicated genetic development during which a child’s body and brain are fragile and susceptible to injuries. Many of these injuries can happen because of recklessness or carelessness on the part of childbirth healthcare providers, and a surprising number of injuries appear to be linked to a higher risk of developing autism.
While there are many treatments and therapies for autism, a child with autism may need medical, social, and educational support for the rest of their life. If your child suffered from a birth injury and now has autism, you may want to see whether you can take action against the person or organization responsible.
Which Birth Injuries May Cause or Contribute to Autism?
Several birth injuries are correlated with much higher rates of autism in young children, although it is difficult to establish a direct link between one particular occurrence and the later manifestation of autism. However, birth injuries that are frequently associated with autism later on include:
What Is Fetal Macrosomia and How Does It Happen?
One of the most incredible aspects of the miracle of new human life is the fact that, for the vast majority of pregnancies, nothing goes wrong at all. Out of the millions of cells that must divide and developmental processes that must go perfectly, for most families, there are no complications. But when unusual circumstances present themselves, a team of educated, fast-thinking doctors can make the difference between barely averted disaster and tragedy. Some of the things that go wrong are caused by genetic or physical conditions; others are caused by medical caregiver incompetence; and still others, like fetal macrosomia, are a combination of the two. Read on to learn about this condition and how it can appear in Illinois birth injuries.
Understanding Fetal Macrosomia
Infants with fetal macrosomia are more commonly known simply as “big babies.” An infant whose weight is in the top 10 percent of all fetal weights before birth has fetal macrosomia - usually, this means the child weighs more than about nine pounds. While nearly everyone knows someone who gave birth to a particularly large infant without consequence, fetal macrosomia can pose serious health complications to both the baby and the mother.
When Are Forceps Appropriate During Delivery?
Healthcare providers are essential during childbirth for ensuring a safe delivery and healthy infant. The responsibilities these caregivers have are enormous and parents must place their trust in their team of doctors during a physically vulnerable and emotionally heightened moment. While most deliveries are successful and parents are rewarded with the joy of meeting their child for the first time, some deliveries are complicated and require quick, deft decision-making and medical treatment.
When labor is not progressing or a baby needs urgent delivery, doctors may recommend a forceps delivery to help the baby come out more quickly. Birth forceps are exactly what they sound like - specialized tools that help a doctor grasp an infant and guide them out with pulling motions. While birth forceps can be very effective, they can result in serious injuries if they are used inappropriately.
When Are Forceps the Right Delivery Tool?
Certain situations require the use of forceps and a doctor’s experience, training, and good medical judgment will determine whether they are used in a specific instance. Situations that may require the use of forceps include:
Can We Sue Our Doctor for Not Telling Us About Our Baby’s Birth Defect?
From time to time, a story will make headlines about a child who was screened for genetic or physical abnormalities in utero, given a clean bill of health, and then born with a serious or life-threatening birth defect. And in 2009, the Illinois Appellate Court decided that parents who prove that a doctor mistakenly diagnosed or failed to diagnose genetic disorders can seek damages for the emotional and financial damages the parents incur when they give birth to a child with a diagnosable disability.
If you requested tests that were intended to show genetic or developmental disabilities while you were pregnant and a doctor misread the results or failed to recognize a prenatal developmental disorder, you may be able to take legal action with the help of an experienced Chicago, IL birth injury attorney.
What Are Examples of Common Wrongful Birth Defects?
Pregnant women who are at a heightened risk of carrying certain genetic disorders are frequently screened during pregnancy, although genetic screening is becoming more common as the trend of women having children at older ages continues. Sometimes genetic screening looks normal and then developmental irregularities appear for the first time in an ultrasound later in the pregnancy. Parents frequently decide to terminate these pregnancies because the life expectancy and quality of the child can be seriously negatively affected. Some of the serious genetic disorders or developmental abnormalities include:
The Doctor Dropped Our Baby During Delivery. Is This Normal?
While a baby dropped on its head may make up a good portion of schoolyard taunts, when an infant is dropped during delivery, it is no laughing matter. Most Chicago mothers envision their labor and delivery ending with a final push, a gentle catch by the attending doctor or midwife, followed by tender first moments with baby. When these first moments are disturbed or taken away altogether because of a doctor’s carelessness or distraction handling a newborn infant, there are no words to describe the confusion and devastation that follow.
Every child deserves a fair chance at starting her life off with health and joy; the delivery process is already complicated and chaotic enough without additional complications. But if your infant was dropped or mishandled during delivery and injured or killed as a result, you can take action to seek compensation and prevent such a tragedy from happening to someone else.
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