Severe Oxygen Deprivation at Birth

Expectant parents carefully make their birthing plans and prepare to welcome their most precious new family member into the world. While we know birth plans do not always go as expected, few parents ever anticipate their vulnerable infant suffering a devastating injury like severe oxygen deprivation (birth asphyxia) during the birthing process.

Birth asphyxia accounts for 23% of newborn deaths, affecting about two out of every 1,000 births in the United States. Nearly 20% of infants who suffer oxygen deprivation during delivery die from the injury, and 25% of surviving infants suffer birth injuries. The more severe the extent of the oxygen deprivation at birth, the more devastating the birth injury and impacts on the child’s life.

If medical negligence played a role in your child’s injury, an experienced Arizona medical malpractice lawyer can help you understand your legal options and pursue the compensation your family deserves.

What Is Severe Oxygen Deprivation During Delivery?

When a baby’s brain and internal organs do not receive adequate oxygen during labor, delivery, or immediately after birth, the organs and brain have insufficient oxygen to work properly. Oxygen deprivation causes the death of cells, including critical brain cells.

Doctors recognize the following two types of severe oxygen deprivation in birth asphyxia cases:

• Acute near-total birth asphyxia occurs abruptly and lasts between five and 30 minutes, with complete or near-complete loss of blood flow to the unborn baby
• Prolonged partial birth asphyxia occurs more slowly and involves a decrease in blood flow to the fetus over the course of one or more hours

When not immediately treated with appropriate measures, both types of birth asphyxia result overall in severe oxygen deprivation with substantial consequences to the child, including death.

What Causes Severe Oxygen Deprivation During Birth?

Both mother and baby endure a dramatic physical process during labor and delivery, with many possible complications. Fortunately, medical research and technology have dramatically reduced the risk of death to both mother and child during childbirth in the 21st century compared to earlier centuries. Still, birth injuries sometimes occur when a doctor or medical staff fail to promptly recognize, diagnose, and promptly treat complications during the labor and delivery process. The most common causes of oxygen deprivation during birth include the following:

• Obstruction of blood flow from the umbilical cord due to compression, prolapse, or twisting
• Placental abruption (separation of the placenta from the uterine wall)
• Uterine rupture
• Maternal hemorrhage
• Maternal respiratory or blood pressure problems
• Poor placental function
• Anemia
• Meconium aspiration
• Serious infection in mother or baby
• Obstruction in an infant’s airway, or heart disease in infants immediately after birth

The medical team attending a laboring mother must carefully monitor the mother and child’s oxygen levels throughout the labor and delivery process and immediately after birth. 

At the earliest sign of oxygen deprivation in an unborn infant, the attending nurse must promptly follow the correct procedure to inform the attending obstetrician, who must then treat the emergency in the manner accepted by the medical community or another reasonable physician would address the emergency in the same circumstances. Failure to do so leaves the doctor or facility liable for damages.

Symptoms of Severe Oxygen Deprivation at Birth

The symptoms of oxygen deprivation during birth depend on the severity and duration of the asphyxia. Most infants who’ve suffered from severe oxygen deprivation during the birth process emerge pale or bluish, and lifeless. They may have very weak respiration or no breathing at all. After the medical team performs an assessment and emergency life-saving treatment such as resuscitation and/or transfusions, infants who survive the severe oxygen deprivation may have a weak cry and display poor reflexes and low muscle tone. Some surviving infants also suffer seizures.

After birth, doctors use the Apgar method to assess a newborn’s health by measuring the infant’s skin color, respiratory rate, heart rate, reflexes, and muscle tone. A low Apgar score, such as a 1-3 on the Apgar scale of 10, is a sign of oxygen deprivation.

Treating A New Born Who Suffered Severe Oxygen Deprivation

During the hours after a birth with severe oxygen deprivation to the infant, the doctor will treat the baby with respiratory support until they can breathe independently. In some cases, a severely affected newborn will undergo treatment such as the following:

• Hypothermia treatment to cool the baby, which slows down the body processes and reduces Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) and brain cell death to improve the long-term outcome
• Blood pressure control
• IV nutrition
• Dialysis for kidney support
• Seizure medication

Additional treatment may be necessary for additional impacts of severe oxygen deprivation that sometimes occur, including cardiovascular problems and multi-organ dysfunction, such as renal failure and bowel problems.

What Are the Long-Term Impacts for Infants Who Survive Severe Oxygen Deprivation During Birth?

Severe oxygen deprivation during birth may cause stillbirth or newborn death. Some surviving infants suffer serious brain damage injuries, such as HIE, with resulting permanent impairment. In some cases, babies who survive asphyxia survive with less apparent brain damage but may go on to develop cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, epilepsy, impaired vision, autism, and intellectual disabilities.

Birth Injury Claims for Severe Oxygen Deprivation

When medical providers fail to appropriately monitor a laboring mother and child, fail to accurately report changes in a mother or unborn baby’s medical status to the attending physician, or neglect to promptly provide the appropriate emergency treatment to prevent oxygen deprivation during birth, the negligent doctor or facility can be held liable for the family’s damages through a birth injury medical malpractice claim. 

This requires a skilled investigation and compelling evidence that the medical provider failed to act according to the accepted medical standards. It also requires evidence of the family’s financial damages associated with the injury and expert witness testimony about the long-term adverse consequences of the birth injury on the child’s quality of life.

How Can an Arizona Birth Injury Lawyer Help My Family’s Case?

No child should have to suffer life-altering or catastrophic injury before taking their first breath due to a medical professional’s negligence. Proving liability for a birth injury is a complex and challenging process. Making a compelling case requires access to the best medical experts and substantial, well-presented evidence of the provider’s liability and the family’s damages, like lifelong medical and educational expenses, lost earnings, the child’s pain and suffering, diminished quality of life, and the family’s emotional anguish. Some birth injury claims become wrongful death cases.

Many medical professionals deny their negligence for a child’s birth injury, and insurance companies may protect their profits at your family’s expense. Call the experienced Arizona birth injury lawyers at Knapp & Roberts for assertive legal representation with a results-oriented approach that prioritizes your family’s best interests.