Cerebral palsy in general in a medical condition in which areas of the brain are damaged, causing permanent movement disorders.
If your child has cerebral palsy this condition is usually seen in early childhood.
Parents who have children dealing with cerebral palsy can sometimes notice things such as poor coordination, weak muscles, trouble swallowing, difficulty standing, etc…
Areas of the brain, such as the basal ganglia, can be injured and this can lead issues such poor posture and movement.
THE BIRTHING PROCESS…
In some cases a diagnosis of CP can be due to issues of birth trauma stemming from a vaginal delivery.
Trauma at birth can occur if the child is in distress and doctors and nurses, for whatever reason, do not react to the distress and help the child.
When a baby can no longer tolerate a vaginal delivery doctors need to move to an emergency C-section.
One tip off as to how a child in dealing with a vaginal delivery is if there is meconium present.
WHAT CAN SOMETIMES HAPPEN If YOUR CHILD HAS CEREBRAL PALSY…
If doctors do not move to an emergency C-section in time then the baby can suffer injury.
In some cases there will be a decreased level of oxygen (hypoxia), or no oxygen at all (anoxia) getting to the baby.
Babies who receive a reduced level of oxygen are always at risk to damage to their brains.
AFTER BIRTH…
Parents can sometimes see culmination of fetal distress on a baby after birth.
The baby will be blue in color.
Or the baby will suffer seizures and have to be resuscitated.
Add to this, the medical professionals will usually have to send the child to the NICU immediately after birth.
THE SECOND OPINION…
Sometimes parents will contact us because initially they were told that their child’s brain injury was due to genetics.
However, after getting other doctors to look at not only the genetic test results, but the MRIs and fetal heart strips, these parents begin to wonder if their child’s condition was due to an injury sustained at birth.
TO LEARN MORE…
If your child has cerebral palsy and you know that it is now time to speak to someone this is what we invite you to do if your matter happened in Maryland.
It costs nothing to take this action, and that is to pick up the phone and give us a call.
We answer childbirth and medical malpractice questions like yours all the time and we would be happy to listen to your birthing story.
