New Jersey Birth Injury Lawyers

While modern medicine ensures that the rate of birth injuries are much lower than they were just a century ago, that’s no consolation if your child has been injured at birth. If your child is the victim of a birth injury, contact a New Jersey birth injury attorney to discuss your legal rights.

A birth injury is defined as any injury that occurs during the pre-natal phase, or during the birthing process. Luckily, most injuries are minor, and resolve shortly after birth with little or no treatment. More serious injuries, however, can have major, long-term effects, and often result in a serious financial and emotional impact on your family. If your family has recently experienced a birth injury, and you believe that someone else’s negligence caused this injury, allow compassionate yet aggressive New Jersey birth injury attorneys Console & Hollawell to fight for your rights. Using our 17 years of experience, our vast resources, and our extensive understanding of medicine and medical protocols, we will make sure that those who caused your child’s birth injury take full responsibility. 

Risk of Birth Injury

The risk of birth injury increases if the baby is exceptionally large, the birth canal is small, the mother has diabetes, or the fetus is in an abnormal position prior to birth. Because of prenatal assessment tools, many of these issues are caught and managed before the birth of the child, resulting in a positive outcome. Birth injuries can happen when doctors are negligent, or when mistakes are made. To learn more about the types of injuries that can potentially occur during the birthing process, speak with a New Jersey birth injury lawyer.

Birth injuries may include:

• Injury to the skin or soft tissue. Areas that receive pressure during the birthing process may have minor issues such as bruising, swelling, or redness. These problems typically resolve on their own.

• Broken bones. While rare, fractures to the arms or legs may occur during a difficult delivery. Setting and immobility typically resolve broken bones.

• Nerve injury. Nerve injury caused by forceps delivery or by the way the child was lying against the mother’s pelvis usually occur in the face, and typically resolve in 2 or 3 months. In larger babies that have difficulty fitting through the birth canal, nerves can be stretched or torn in the arms, in the diaphragm, or in the spinal cord. Injuries to the nerves in the arm or diaphragm can be resolved on their own or with surgery. Sometimes nerve injury to the shoulder causes a condition called Erb’s Palsy, which is permanent. Injuries to the spinal cord are usually permanent.

• Head and brain injury. Minor head injuries such as bruising and contusions can result from long deliveries, and resolve on their own. More severe head injuries, such as skull fractures, can be caused by difficult deliveries or the use of forceps. The most severe brain injuries are caused by lack of oxygen during the birthing process, and can result in cognitive and movement issues, or may cause blindness or hearing impairment. Injuries that result from lack of oxygen typically have a poor prognosis, and require years of long-term care.

To learn more about birth injury and to determine if you have a potential lawsuit, contact the award-winning New Jersey birth injury attorneys at Console & Hollawell today 1-800-455-2746 to set up a free consultation.