The moment a newborn suffers harm due to medical negligence, time stands still for Odenton families. What should mark the beginning of a beautiful journey suddenly turns into years of specialized care, therapy appointments, and financial strain. 

When healthcare providers make preventable mistakes during childbirth, your family deserves unwavering legal support from attorneys who grasp the technicalities of both medical science and Maryland law.

At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our birth injury attorneys blend medical insight with purposeful legal representation for families in Anne Arundel County. We shoulder the legal burden while you provide the love and attention your child needs.

Liability in Birth Injury Cases

Birth injury claims frequently name multiple defendants whose actions collectively caused harm. Identifying every responsible party expands the available compensation for your child’s immediate and long-term needs.

Delivering Doctor’s Responsibility

Obstetricians hold primary responsibility for ensuring safe childbirth. Despite years of training, physician errors still occur:

Improper Use of Delivery Instruments: Doctors sometimes use forceps or vacuum extractors when labor slows or complications arise. These tools, while valuable in certain situations, require precise application. 

In Odenton birthing centers, improper use has led to infant skull fractures, damaged facial nerves, and dangerous brain bleeds. Vacuum extractors misused have resulted in scalp lacerations, blood collection beneath the scalp, and intracranial hemorrhage.

Delayed Cesarean Sections: When monitoring shows fetal distress or prolonged labor threatens the baby’s oxygen supply, physicians must act swiftly. Even short delays can mean permanent neurological damage. Anne Arundel hospitals maintain emergency C-section protocols, yet preventable delays still occur when physicians misjudge the urgency of warning signs.

Missed Complication Recognition: Well-trained obstetricians must identify and respond to conditions like shoulder dystocia, abnormal positioning, and cord compression. Failure to recognize these time-sensitive emergencies can result in permanent disability or death for newborns.

Hospital and Staff Liability

The delivering physician is rarely the only responsible party in birth injury cases:

  • Nurses, Midwives, and Support Staff: Labor nurses serve as the frontline monitors of maternal and fetal wellbeing throughout childbirth. They must track vital signs, administer medications correctly, note distress indicators, and communicate concerns promptly to physicians. Midwives assisting births must follow evidence-based protocols and recognize when medical intervention becomes imperative.
  • Institutional Responsibility: Under Maryland’s “respondeat superior” doctrine (Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-302), hospitals bear vicarious liability for employee negligence. Facilities may also face direct liability for organizational shortcomings such as insufficient staffing, inadequate training, or outdated protocols.

Odenton healthcare facilities must provide adequately equipped birthing environments with properly trained personnel. When system-wide failures result in newborn injuries, institutions themselves may bear substantial liability.

Common Causes of Birth Injuries

Medical negligence during childbirth typically falls into several recognizable patterns that violate established care standards.

Fetal Monitoring Failures

Modern electronic fetal monitoring systems provide moment-by-moment data about the baby’s condition. When used properly, they save lives.

Warning Signs and Consequences: Attentive providers must recognize patterns concerning irregular heart rates, diminished variability, late decelerations after contractions, and meconium staining. Missed or misinterpreted signals can result in unaddressed oxygen deprivation, potentially causing hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), cerebral palsy, or intellectual disabilities.

Research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) confirms that even brief oxygen deprivation can permanently alter brain development. In Odenton hospitals, monitoring lapses frequently occur during shift transitions, on short-staffed units, or when personnel lack specialized training in reading fetal tracings.

Delivery Complications

The birthing process presents unique challenges requiring skilled medical response:

  • Delivery Tool Misapplication: While forceps and vacuum extractors help resolve difficult deliveries, their misuse remains among the leading preventable causes of birth injuries. The ACOG outlines specific guidelines for these instrumental deliveries. When physicians disregard these protocols, resulting harm constitutes actionable medical negligence.
  • Shoulder Dystocia Management: This obstetric emergency occurs when the infant’s shoulder becomes trapped against the mother’s pelvic bone after the head emerges. Proper resolution requires specific maneuvers performed without excessive force. Mismanagement frequently results in brachial plexus injuries affecting arm function, clavicle fractures, or oxygen deprivation. Proper prenatal risk assessment and appropriate delivery techniques significantly reduce these dangers.

Medication and Prenatal Oversights

Birth injuries sometimes originate before labor begins:

  • Labor Medication Errors: Medication administration during childbirth requires precision. Pitocin, used to stimulate contractions, demands careful dosing and continuous monitoring. Excessive amounts trigger unnaturally strong contractions that restrict fetal oxygen. Similarly, improperly administered epidural anesthesia can lower maternal blood pressure, reducing crucial placental blood flow.
  • High-Risk Pregnancy Mismanagement: Many birth injuries stem from unaddressed pregnancy complications. Untreated maternal infections, undiagnosed preeclampsia, poorly controlled gestational diabetes, or missed fetal abnormalities requiring specialized delivery planning all contribute to preventable birth trauma. Healthcare providers who fail to identify and address these risks may face liability for resulting injuries.

Filing a Birth Injury Claim in Maryland

Maryland imposes distinctive procedural requirements on birth injury claims that families must follow precisely to preserve their right to compensation.

The Filing Process

  • Medical Evidence Collection: Successful claims require thorough documentation – prenatal records, labor notes, fetal monitoring strips, NICU charts, and ongoing treatment records. Attorneys work with medical consultants to pinpoint exactly where treatment falls below acceptable standards.
  • Early Legal Consultation: Time restrictions make prompt attorney involvement imperative. Skilled birth injury lawyers familiar with Anne Arundel County medical facilities can assess your case’s merit and outline specific next steps tailored to your circumstances.
  • Expert Certification Requirement: Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-04(b), all medical malpractice claims require a certificate from a qualified medical expert within 90 days of filing. This certification must verify that healthcare providers breached the standard of care, directly causing your child’s injuries. The certifying expert must have active clinical experience or teaching credentials in the relevant specialty within five years.
  • Mandatory Arbitration Filing: Maryland Health Care Malpractice Claims Act (§3-2A-01 et seq.) mandates initial filing with the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO). While either party typically waives arbitration to proceed to court, this administrative step remains mandatory.
  • Resolution Pathways: Though many cases conclude through settlement negotiations, your attorney prepares simultaneously for a potential trial. This dual preparation strengthens negotiating positions while ensuring readiness if going to court becomes necessary.

Recoverable Damages in Odenton Cases

Maryland law establishes specific categories of compensation for families affected by preventable birth injuries.

Economic Damages

These damages address tangible financial losses:

  • Medical Care Costs: Birth trauma often necessitates immediate intensive care, surgeries, hospital stays, medications, and ongoing specialist treatment. For Odenton families, these expenses frequently reach six or seven figures without appropriate legal recovery.
  • Lifetime Support Needs: Permanent injuries require long-term financial planning. Recoverable damages include:
    • Therapeutic services – physical, occupational, and speech therapies
    • Adaptive equipment for mobility and communication
    • Home architectural adjustments for accessibility
    • Specialized educational programs
    • Diminished future earning capacity

Maryland law (Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09) places no limit on economic damages, recognizing that injury-related expenses often continue throughout the child’s lifetime.

Non-Economic Damages

These damages acknowledge personal suffering beyond financial impact:

  • Physical and Emotional Suffering: Birth injuries often cause significant physical pain and psychological distress. These damages recognize the suffering experienced by the injured child, including the inability to enjoy typical childhood experiences or reach normal developmental milestones.
  • Statutory Limitations: Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09 caps non-economic damages at approximately $905,000 for cases arising in 2025, with annual adjustments for inflation. This ceiling applies regardless of injury severity, though exceptions exist for wrongful death claims with multiple beneficiaries.
  • Multiple Claimant Provisions: When birth injuries result in a death involving multiple beneficiaries (typically parents), Maryland allows enhanced non-economic recovery, currently up to amounts exceeding $1,000,000. Your attorney can determine how these provisions apply to your specific circumstances.

Wrongful Death Compensation

When birth injuries prove fatal, Maryland’s Wrongful Death Act (Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-904) permits recovery for:

  • Emotional Suffering and Lost Relationship: These damages acknowledge parents’ acute grief and severed parent-child relationship. While no compensation truly addresses such loss, the state recognizes parents’ right to recovery for this profound harm.
  • Economic Loss Recovery: Unlike non-economic damages, Maryland imposes no cap on economic losses in wrongful death cases. Families may recover all financial costs, including medical expenses incurred before death and funeral expenses.

Maryland Laws Governing Birth Injury Claims

Maryland legislation establishes strict deadlines and procedures that control every aspect of birth injury litigation.

Time Limitations

  • Standard Filing Periods: For maternal injuries, Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-109 establishes two concurrent deadlines:
    • Five years from injury occurrence, or
    • Three years from reasonable injury discovery, whichever comes first
  • Minor Protection Provisions: When newborns suffer injuries, Maryland law provides vital deadline extensions. For most birth injury cases, the statute extends until the child’s 11th birthday – recognizing that some conditions become apparent only as developmental delays emerge. This gives families precious time to understand their child’s condition before legal decisions become necessary.

Expert Certification Requirements

Mandatory Expert Verification: Maryland requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert within 90 days after HCADRO filing. This certificate must:

  • Specifically identify standard of care violations
  • Establish direct causation between negligence and injuries
  • Come from an expert with recent practical experience in the relevant specialty

The expert qualification standards are stringent – requiring active clinical practice or teaching within five years in the defendant’s specialty area. Certificates failing to meet these specifications result in case dismissal, regardless of merit.

Notable Maryland Birth Injury Verdicts

Maryland courts have consistently recognized the serious impact of birth injuries through substantial compensation awards.

Recent Significant Maryland Verdicts

  • Prince George’s County Verdict: A jury awarded $15.6 million to parents whose newborn developed cerebral palsy following oxygen deprivation during delivery. The verdict covered both lifetime medical needs and quality-of-life damages.
  • Baltimore Hospital Negligence Case: Jurors determined $21 million appropriate compensation for a family whose child sustained permanent brain damage when doctors delayed an emergency C-section. Though non-economic portions faced statutory reduction, the award still provided substantial support for the child’s extensive medical requirements.

Compensation Reality

Million-Dollar Recovery Threshold: Birth injury compensation typically exceeds $1 million when permanent conditions like cerebral palsy, cognitive impairment, or physical limitations result. These substantial awards reflect the extraordinary long-term care requirements.

Contact Our Odenton Birth Injury Attorneys Today

When medical negligence alters your child’s future at birth, everyday matters. Maryland’s strict filing deadlines mean delaying legal advice could forfeit your family’s rights permanently.

The initial consultation costs nothing, but waiting could cost everything. Contact us today for a free consultation where we’ll assess your potential claim and explain exactly how we can help. Your child deserves healthcare providers who uphold proper standards – and full compensation when they don’t.