Some Facts About Birth Injury Law

Birth injuries include any kind of trauma or injury to a baby that takes place during the course of childbirth. These kinds of injuries often result from an inordinate amount of pressure being put on the baby as it passes through the birth canal. Many birth-related injuries, including swelling, bruising, scars from instruments such as forceps, and bone fractures (most often resulting from a breech birth), are rarely serious and most often mend within a few weeks. Other birth injuries, such as temporary failure of nerve or muscle performance, may resolve themselves within weeks or months. Nevertheless, in scenarios where the nerves are torn or otherwise damaged, the baby may never fully recover from the trauma.

Birth injuries can be caused by a number of different aspects of the birth process, including:

• Unusually long labor
• “Breech” (“butt first”) delivery
• premature childbirth
• physician error or misuse of instruments (such as forceps)
• abnormally small or unusually shaped mother’s pelvis

Each state follows its own statute of limitations for birth injury related claims. If you are the parent of a child who has suffered a birth related injury, it is in your best interest to waste no time in seeking legal counsel. If the deadline on the statute of limitations has passed, you will not be permitted to bring a lawsuit. Mueller Hillin specializes in birth injury cases in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and Austin; if you believe you have the basis for this type of case, please contact us today.