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With there being so many things that can go wrong during the delivery of a baby, it’s amazing how many beautiful, healthy babies are born every year in the United States. However, when there are complications during childbirth, the result can be horrifying.

According to statistics, approximately one half of 1% of all babies born in the United States experience shoulder dystocia during birth. Approximately 10% of shoulder dystocia deliveries result in brachial plexus injuries. Unfortunately, shoulder dystocia is impossible to predict prior to birth, and it is an absolute nightmare for the obstetrician delivering the baby, as well as the parents, of course. Birth injuries are a very common type of medical malpractice that personal injury lawyers see.

What is shoulder dystocia?

Shoulder dystocia is an obstetrical complication that occurs in thousands of deliveries each year in the United States. It can cause serious lifelong disability to newborns and often results in what are called “brachial plexus injuries.” The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves that controls function of the arms and hands. With shoulder dystocia, just as the baby’s head emerges, the neck suddenly retracts against the mother’s perineum causing the baby’s cheeks to puff out. At this point, the baby’s shoulder is caught on the mother’s pubic bone. If the baby cannot be freed within several minutes, irreversible brain damage or death can occur. Injury to upper part of the brachial plexus nerves is known as Erb’s palsy and injury to the lower nerves is Klumpke’s palsy.

Shoulder dystocia can also occur if the baby’s posterior shoulder gets caught on the mother’s sacrum, but this is a far less common type of shoulder dystocia than the one described above. The mother’s sacrum is far less likely to get in the way of the baby’s delivery than the pelvic bone.

Large babies suffer shoulder dystocia more often than smaller babies for obvious reasons. In larger babies, much of the excess growth occurs in the chest and abdominal regions. In these babies, those dimensions are larger than those of the head. Diabetic mothers seem to carry and deliver larger babies. Studies have shown that babies of diabetic mothers are shown to have larger ratios of shoulder circumference to head circumference than babies of nondiabetic mothers.

Birth injury claims related to shoulder dystocia are the second largest category of indemnity payments in obstetrics. Birth asphyxia cases are first.

If your baby has suffered brain damage or death due to a birth injury in Washington, Maryland or Virginia, please visit the website of medical malpractice attorneys Chaikin Sherman Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. today to learn more or to schedule your confidential consultation.