Fetal distress is a significant indicator that something is wrong during labor or delivery. When doctors and other health care providers charged with protecting the well-being of the mother and/or baby during the birthing process fail to recognize and respond to fetal distress, the result may be some variety of birth injury, such as the following:
A correct response to fetal distress during labor is oftentimes early intervention to expedite delivery or a C-section. Your C-section or vaginal delivery may have been delayed because nurses did something as simple as moving the birth mother into a different position; however, on occasion, fetal distress mandates nurses to notify the doctor in time of irregularities indicated on the fetal monitoring strip. The doctor may have taken too long to get to the hospital or for some other reason delayed providing proper care during your problematic labor and this caused injury to you or your child. If so, you may have cause for a legal claim or lawsuit.
A lawsuit against your OB-GYN will not turn back the clock and erase the medical errors that led to your baby’s birth injury. It cannot undo the fact that your doctor did not adequately address an umbilical cord problem or diagnose a placental separation in time. But adequate financial compensation for your baby can mean that your family will have the resources necessary to cope with the birth injury as successfully as possible.
Coping with a birth injury may mean that your child will need one or more of the following: