Birth injuries can permanently alter a family’s path forward. When healthcare providers make preventable mistakes during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, newborns may suffer significant injuries that require lifelong care. For Waldorf families confronting this reality, the combination of medical bills, specialized care costs, and uncertainty about the future creates immediate pressure.
A birth injury attorney with extensive knowledge of Charles County medical systems can make a meaningful difference for your family. Legal representation ensures your child receives proper compensation for their injuries while holding responsible medical providers accountable for substandard care.
Understanding Birth Injuries
Birth Injuries vs. Birth Defects: Important Distinctions
Birth injuries differ fundamentally from birth defects. Birth injuries occur during the birthing process due to physical trauma or oxygen deprivation, often resulting from medical negligence. In contrast, birth defects typically develop during pregnancy from genetic factors, environmental influences, or maternal health conditions, usually without medical negligence.
This distinction matters legally because birth injuries potentially give rise to medical malpractice claims, while birth defects generally do not unless a doctor fails to identify or manage them appropriately during pregnancy.
Common Types of Birth Injuries
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) represents one of the most serious birth injuries, affecting motor function, muscle tone, and coordination. This permanent condition often results from oxygen deprivation (asphyxia) during birth, brain trauma, or infections that could have been prevented with proper medical care.
CP is the most common cause of childhood disability in the United States. Children with this condition require ongoing physical therapy, specialized education, adaptive equipment, and sometimes surgical interventions.
Brachial Plexus Injuries
Brachial plexus injuries occur when the network of nerves connecting the spine to the shoulder, arm, and hand becomes damaged during delivery. Erb’s palsy, the most common form, causes weakness or paralysis in the affected arm.
The Boston Children’s Hospital reports that this injury occurs in about one to three out of every 1,000 births in the United States. They typically result from excessive force or improper technique during difficult deliveries, particularly when shoulder dystocia (when the baby’s shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone) presents complications.
Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) occurs when a baby’s brain doesn’t receive adequate oxygen and blood flow during birth. This oxygen deprivation can kill brain cells and cause permanent brain damage within minutes.
Proper fetal monitoring should detect signs of distress, allowing medical staff to intervene quickly. When healthcare providers miss these warning signs or delay intervention, the resulting brain damage can cause developmental delays, cognitive impairments, seizure disorders, and other permanent disabilities.
Fractures and Nerve Damage
During difficult deliveries, improper techniques or excessive force can cause bone fractures (most commonly clavicle and skull fractures) or damage to facial, cranial, or peripheral nerves. These injuries may heal completely with proper treatment or result in permanent disfigurement or functional limitation, depending on their severity.
Maryland Birth Injury Laws and Negligence
Medical Malpractice in Birth Injury Cases
Birth injury claims fall under medical malpractice law in Maryland. To succeed in these claims, families must prove that a healthcare provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care, resulting in injury to the newborn or mother. The standard of care refers to the level of care, skill, and treatment that a reasonably capable medical professional would provide under similar circumstances.
Not every birth complication constitutes malpractice. Childbirth inherently involves risks, and some injuries occur despite proper care. A valid malpractice claim requires showing that the injury resulted specifically from medical negligence rather than unavoidable complications.
Key Legal Elements for Proving Negligence
Duty of Care
Healthcare providers who treat expecting mothers owe them and their unborn children a professional duty of care. This element is generally straightforward to establish in birth injury cases as the provider-patient relationship creates this duty automatically.
Breach of Duty
Additionally, the plaintiff must prove the healthcare provider failed to deliver care meeting the accepted medical standard. This requires evidence that the provider did something they shouldn’t have done or failed to do something they should have done. Expert testimony typically establishes what actions the standard of care required and how the provider’s conduct diverged from this standard.
Causation
Perhaps the most technically demanding element, “causation,” requires proving that the provider’s negligence directly caused the specific birth injury. Defense attorneys often argue that genetic factors, maternal health conditions, or unavoidable complications—not negligence—caused the injury.
Damages
Finally, the plaintiff must demonstrate actual harm resulting from the negligence, including medical expenses, pain and suffering, disability, and other losses. In birth injury cases, damages often include both current costs and projected lifetime expenses for the injured child.
Maryland’s Statute of Limitations
Maryland law establishes specific deadlines for filing birth injury claims:
For adult patients (the mother), claims must be filed within the earlier of five years from when the injury occurred or three years from when the injury was reasonably discovered.
For children injured at birth, Maryland extends the filing deadline until the child’s 11th birthday for most cases. This extension recognizes that some birth-related conditions may not become apparent until developmental delays emerge in early childhood.
If the birth injury resulted in death, Maryland’s wrongful death statute requires filing within three years of the date of death.
Generally, missing these deadlines bars recovery permanently, regardless of the merits of your case. This makes early consultation with a Waldorf birth injury attorney particularly crucial.
Common Causes of Birth Injuries
In our experience, the common causes of birth injuries in Waldorf are the following:
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress
Proper fetal monitoring during labor provides vital information about the baby’s condition. Electronic fetal monitoring tracks heart rate patterns that can indicate oxygen deprivation or other distress. When healthcare providers fail to monitor these signals correctly or respond promptly to concerning patterns, babies may suffer preventable brain damage from prolonged oxygen deprivation.
Warning signs that require immediate attention include:
- Decreased fetal movement
- Abnormal heart rate patterns
- Meconium in amniotic fluid
- Abnormal fetal blood sampling results
Medical standards require healthcare providers to recognize these signs and take appropriate action to prevent injury.
Delayed or Improper Cesarean Sections
When complications arise during labor, prompt cesarean delivery can prevent serious birth injuries. Common scenarios requiring emergency C-sections include:
- Placental abruption (separation of the placenta from the uterine wall)
- Umbilical cord prolapse (when the cord drops through the cervix before the baby)
- Prolonged fetal distress
- Failure of labor to progress
- Uterine rupture
Delays in performing necessary C-sections or improperly executed surgical techniques can result in permanent injuries to both mother and child.
Misuse of Delivery Instruments
If labor slows or complications develop, obstetricians sometimes use forceps or vacuum extractors to assist delivery. While these tools can be appropriate in certain situations, their misuse causes many preventable birth injuries.
Forceps improperly applied may cause:
- Skull fractures
- Facial nerve damage
- Cerebral hemorrhages
- Brain damage
Vacuum extractors used incorrectly can lead to:
- Scalp lacerations
- Cephalohematomas (blood collection between the skull and periosteum)
- Subgaleal hemorrhages (bleeding in deeper layers of the scalp)
- Intracranial bleeding
Proper training and technique are necessary to use these instruments safely. When doctors apply excessive force or use instruments in contraindicated situations, they may face liability for resulting injuries.
Medication Errors During Pregnancy or Delivery
Medication mistakes during pregnancy, labor, or delivery pose substantial risks to both mother and baby:
- Improper dosing of labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin can cause abnormally strong contractions that reduce oxygen flow to the baby
- Incorrect administration of epidural anesthesia can cause maternal hypotension, reducing placental blood flow
- Inappropriate use of medications contraindicated during pregnancy can cause birth defects or complications
- Anesthesia errors during cesarean deliveries can harm both mother and child
Moreover, according to the International Medication Safety Network, giving medications to newborns during childbirth carries special risks because babies are so small and vulnerable. Errors can happen when healthcare providers must adjust adult medications to tiny doses appropriate for newborns.
Problems arise when staff confuse different medication strengths, misread similar-looking packages, or make calculation mistakes when determining the correct amount for a newborn’s weight.
The challenge is made worse because many medications aren’t specifically designed for babies, requiring extra steps to prepare proper doses. Safe practice requires that hospitals prepare these sensitive medications in the pharmacy rather than at the bedside.
All staff who handle newborn medications should demonstrate their ability to calculate doses correctly and understand the unique needs of newborn patients.
Inadequate Prenatal Care
Some birth injuries result from problems that develop during pregnancy but could have been identified and addressed through proper prenatal care. Examples include:
- Failure to diagnose maternal conditions like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes
- Missed diagnosis of fetal abnormalities that would require special delivery procedures
- Failure to identify and treat maternal infections that can affect the baby
- Inadequate monitoring of high-risk pregnancies
When healthcare providers miss these conditions or fail to manage them appropriately, they may be liable for resulting birth injuries.
Damages Recoverable Under Maryland Law
Maryland law provides Waldorf families with specific ways to recover damages when medication errors harm newborns during childbirth. These legal remedies are designed to address both the immediate and long-term consequences of medical negligence:
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover quantifiable financial losses related to the birth injury:
Medical Expenses (Past and Future)
Birth injuries often require significant medical treatment:
- Initial neonatal intensive care
- Surgeries and hospital stays
- Specialist physician services
- Medications and medical equipment
- Continued medical treatment throughout childhood and potentially into adulthood
For children with permanent disabilities like cerebral palsy, lifetime medical costs frequently exceed $1 million. Maryland places no cap on economic damages, allowing families to recover the full amount of these expenses.
Rehabilitation and Therapy Costs
Many birth injuries require ongoing rehabilitation services:
- Physical therapy to improve mobility and strength
- Occupational therapy to develop daily living skills
- Speech therapy for communication challenges
- Behavioral therapy to address psychological aspects of disability
- Specialized educational services for learning disabilities
These services aim to maximize the child’s functional abilities despite their injuries. The costs of these necessary interventions qualify as recoverable economic damages.
Costs of Assistive Devices and Home Modifications
Children with permanent disabilities often need:
- Mobility equipment (wheelchairs, walkers, braces)
- Communication devices for those with speech impairments
- Adaptive equipment for feeding, bathing, and other activities
- Home modifications (ramps, widened doorways, accessible bathrooms)
- Specially equipped vehicles for transportation
These substantial expenses represent real financial impacts of birth injuries that Maryland law recognizes as compensable damages.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages address subjective, non-monetary losses:
Pain and Suffering
This category compensates for the physical pain and discomfort experienced by the injured child, which may include:
- Pain from the original injury
- Discomfort from medical procedures and treatments
- Ongoing physical limitations and discomfort
Though difficult to quantify, pain and suffering represent a real consequence of birth injuries deserving compensation.
Emotional Distress
Birth injuries cause psychological suffering for both the child and family:
- Anxiety and depression related to disability
- Psychological challenges of coping with limitations
- Mental suffering associated with treatment procedures
- Grief over lost opportunities and abilities
Maryland law recognizes these psychological impacts as compensable damages.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Many children with birth injuries cannot experience normal childhood activities or achieve typical developmental milestones. This reduced quality of life—the inability to play sports, participate in social activities, or engage in other enjoyable aspects of childhood—constitutes a compensable loss under Maryland law.
Maryland caps non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. For cases arising in 2025, this cap stands at approximately $905,000 for most cases, with annual adjustments for inflation.
Wrongful Death Damages
When a birth injury tragically results in death, Maryland’s wrongful death statute allows certain family members to recover damages:
Funeral and Burial Expenses
The actual costs of funeral services and burial or cremation qualify as economic damages.
Loss of Companionship
This category recognizes the lost relationship between parents and child—the companionship, society, and comfort that would have been shared throughout life.
Emotional Pain and Suffering
Wrongful death claims acknowledge the mental anguish, emotional pain, and suffering experienced by parents losing a child due to medical negligence.
Wrongful death claims involve particular procedures and limitations under Maryland law, making experienced legal representation particularly important in these sensitive cases.
