As a new parent, you are your child’s most important advocate. You spend countless hours watching them, learning their cues, and celebrating every small movement and sound. This unique bond means you also have a powerful intuition. If you have a persistent feeling that something isn’t quite right with your baby’s health or development, it is essential to trust that instinct.
While doctors and nurses are medical experts, they can sometimes miss subtle issues or dismiss a parent’s concerns as “new parent anxiety.” However, certain physical, behavioral, and developmental signs can be early indicators of a preventable birth injury caused by medical negligence during labor or delivery. Recognizing these birth injury signs is the first step toward getting your child the help they need and holding the responsible parties accountable.
At CP Family Help, we want to empower you with the knowledge to protect your child’s future. Here are 10 key birth injury signs that warrant a serious discussion with a lawyer.
Why Early Recognition of Birth Injury Signs Matters
A birth injury is any type of harm that occurs to a baby during the birthing process. While some are unavoidable, many are the direct result of a medical professional’s failure to meet the required standard of care. This can include failing to respond to oxygen deprivation or causing physical trauma with delivery instruments.
Identifying these birth injury signs as early as possible is critical for two main reasons. Medically, it allows for early intervention therapies and treatments that can significantly improve your child’s long-term outcome. Legally, it is crucial for preserving evidence, documenting the injury’s progression, and ensuring you do not miss the strict legal deadline, known as the statute of limitations, for filing a claim.
10 Key Birth Injury Signs That May Indicate Negligence
If you observe any of the following signs in your newborn or infant, it is vital to seek medical attention and then contact a birth injury law firm for a free consultation.
1. Seizures in a Newborn
Seizures in the first few hours or days of life are a major red flag for neurological injury. They may not look like adult seizures; they can be subtle, appearing as repetitive blinking, staring spells, lip-smacking, or uncontrolled jerking of an arm or leg. Seizures are often one of the most prominent birth injury signs of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a type of brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation.
2. An Arching Back While Crying (Opisthotonus)
A baby who consistently and stiffly arches their back and neck while crying may be exhibiting a sign of significant neurological damage. This posture, called opisthotonus, is an involuntary muscle spasm. It is often associated with conditions like severe brain damage, meningitis, or kernicterus (brain damage from untreated jaundice).
3. Difficulty with Sucking, Swallowing, or Feeding
A newborn’s instinct to suck, swallow, and breathe in a coordinated pattern is essential for survival. A struggle with feeding, gagging, or choking can indicate damage to the brain or the cranial nerves that control these functions. This is a common sign in infants who have suffered from oxygen deprivation or physical trauma during birth.
4. A Weak or High-Pitched Cry
The sound of your baby’s cry can tell you a lot. A cry that is consistently very weak, raspy, or abnormally high-pitched (often described as “shrill”) can be one of the more telling birth injury signs of neurological damage. This is particularly true if the baby also seems lethargic or difficult to soothe.
5. Limited Movement or Weakness in One Arm (Erb’s Palsy)
If you notice your baby only moves one arm freely while the other hangs limply at their side, it could be a sign of a brachial plexus injury. This nerve damage often occurs when a baby’s shoulder gets stuck during delivery (shoulder dystocia) and the doctor uses excessive force, stretching or tearing the nerves. This condition is known as Erb’s palsy.
6. Significant Bruising, Swelling, or Lacerations on the Head/Face
While some minor bruising can occur during a difficult delivery, deep bruises, significant swelling (cephalohematoma), or cuts on the baby’s head, face, or scalp are not normal. These are often signs of a traumatic birth, typically involving the improper or forceful use of delivery instruments like forceps or a vacuum extractor.
7. A “Floppy” or Stiff Body Tone
A newborn’s muscle tone should be somewhere between relaxed and flexed. A baby who feels “floppy” like a ragdoll when picked up has low muscle tone (hypotonia). Conversely, a baby who feels very rigid and stiff has high muscle tone (hypertonia). Both are significant birth injury signs pointing to damage in the brain or central nervous system, often linked to cerebral palsy.
8. The Need for Resuscitation at Birth (Low APGAR Scores)
The APGAR test is a quick assessment given at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. A low score (typically below 7) indicates the baby is having trouble with breathing, heart rate, or other functions. The need for oxygen, CPR, or admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a clear sign that the baby suffered significant distress during birth, often due to perinatal asphyxia.
9. Jaundice Accompanied by Lethargy
Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) is common in newborns, but it must be monitored and treated. If severe jaundice is left untreated, bilirubin levels can become toxic and cross the blood-brain barrier, causing a type of permanent brain damage called kernicterus. If your jaundiced baby is also unusually sleepy, lethargic, and not feeding well, it’s a medical emergency.
10. Failure to Meet Developmental Milestones
Some birth injury signs don’t become apparent until months later. If your infant is consistently late in reaching key developmental milestones such as rolling over, sitting up, crawling, or speaking it could be a sign of an underlying brain injury that occurred at birth.
Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Injury Claims
The doctors said my baby’s condition was unavoidable. Can I still have a case?
Yes. It is common for hospitals and doctors to claim that an injury was an unavoidable complication of childbirth. However, a detailed investigation by independent medical experts hired by your attorney may reveal that a different action or a quicker response could have prevented the injury. Never take the hospital’s explanation at face value without a second opinion from a legal expert.
How much does it cost to have a lawyer investigate my child’s injury?
There is no cost to you. Reputable birth injury law firms like CP Family Help operate on a contingency fee basis. This means we cover all the costs of investigating your case, including hiring top medical experts. We only get paid a fee if we successfully win a settlement or verdict for your family.
What is the goal of filing a birth injury lawsuit?
The primary goal is to secure the financial resources necessary to provide your child with the best possible care for the rest of their life. This includes costs for medical treatments, therapies, assistive equipment, and special education. A lawsuit also serves to hold negligent medical professionals accountable and can help prevent similar tragedies from happening to other families.
How CP Family Help Can Provide Answers
If you recognize any of these birth injury signs in your child, you deserve to know what happened and why. The legal team at CP Family Help focuses exclusively on these complex cases. We have the compassion to support your family through this difficult time and the legal expertise to fight for the justice you deserve.
Let us take on the legal burden so you can focus on your child. Contact us today for a free, confidential, and no-risk consultation. We are here to listen to your story and help you find the answers you need.
