Forty weeks of preparation and often a lifetime of dreaming means little once you hold a beautiful new baby in your arms. However, that doesn’t mean complications won’t arise and extend the time between birth and bonding. Almost 30 of every 1000 US births are traumatic in some way, and approximately seven out of 1000 live births suffer a serious birth injury.
A traumatic birth injury is either an unavoidable or avoidable hypoxic and ischemic injury that affects the fetus during or right after delivery. Birth injuries are often error-related and can be prevented with the right attention and care. A competent birth injury attorney can help you get the justice your child deserves, but parents first need to know some common signs that their baby has a birth injury.
Feeding Trouble
Feeding issues can happen with any baby. However, when they are extensive or serious, they can signify a birth injury. Problems with actual eating, digestion, sucking, and swallowing can be signs of cerebral palsy or a brain hemorrhage. Both of those conditions can be caused by a birth injury. If the feeding issues don’t quickly clear up on their own, you may be in for some quite extensive or long-term medical treatment.
Crying with an Arched Back
Each cry in infancy is as unique as the baby who’s crying. Moreover, every cry can mean something completely different. Parents learn to decipher the intricate communication differences based on their child’s needs. However, there’s a difference between a need cry and a pain cry. A cry that becomes intense and accompanied by arching of the back may be a sign of a birth injury. If a baby’s crying while arching their back, that’s usually a sign of serious pain. This can be from acid reflux, cerebral palsy, nerve damage, or any number of other birth injury-related issues.
Fractured Bones or Paralysis
During a difficult or problematic natural childbirth, forceps and other medical devices may be used to assist the delivery. However, that can lead to aggressive medical practices as they grip hold of the infant. This is a more common occurrence in the upper body, but broken legs can also be an obvious sign of a birth injury. Facial paralysis or nerve damage can also be caused by overly aggressive delivery assisted by medical devices such as forceps and vacuum suctioning. It can be hard to tell if an infant has nerve damage, but some signs parents can look for include lack of response to touch or reflexes, weakness, and limpness in the limbs.
Seizures
Seizures may be common in specific children for a variety of reasons. However, when they occur in infancy, they may be a sign of a birth injury. Bleeding of the brain, such as in the case of an Intraventricular, Subarachnoid, or Subdural hemorrhage, is a common reason for seizures to develop shortly after birth. Each type of seizure can vary in duration, severity, and time or type of treatment. However, most are treatable with the right amount of time, patience, a competent birth injury attorney to help you get the justice you need for an avoidable birth defect or traumatic birth injury.