Having a baby is among the most exciting, painful, and over all exhausting ordeals a woman and her family can go through. Nine months of preparation go into preparing for a new little person to join the family, and in some cases preparation begins even sooner. Every woman should expect a certain amount of pain during the labor and delivery process, but after several months of care doctors and hospital staff should know enough about the woman’s medical limitations.

But these limitations are not always looked at closely enough. Often hospitals move forward as if everything is “normal” even when the writing is on the wall for something to go wrong. Instead of being proactive to prevent excess pain or distress to the mother and/or her child. They are reactive toward anything that happens out of the ordinary, which can result in medical staff going to extreme measures to deliver the baby and this can have extreme effects of the mother’s recovery from the birth or her ability to have more children in the future. Here are some of the things that may happen when doctors and other medical staff fail to identify problems during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. The following are all reasons to contact a Louisville birth injury attorney.

Uterine Infections

There are various signs that a woman may have a uterine infection, among them are fever and early labor. These infections are caused by bacteria and can be treated with intravenous antibiotics. When these are not identified, both the mother and child are at risk for health problems up to and including death.

Negligence in Inducing Labor

There are a handful of reasons why doctors choose to induce labor rather than waiting for it to happen on its own. Many of these are sound, such as when a woman has gone more than two weeks past her due date, or there are signs that continuing the pregnancy might pose problems to the mother’s or child’s health. Negligence can happen through unnecessary induction, or by failing to induce when the need is there. Labor may be induced by a variety of methods, such as hormonally or by breaking the water. Mishandling a labor induction can cause infection or uterine rupture and future infertility.

Failure to Identify Problems with the Placenta

The placement of the placenta is very important during pregnancy, labor and delivery. Two conditions in particular may cause problems. Placenta previa, where the placenta is in front of the fetus and blocks the cervix or placenta acretia where the placenta detaches from the uterine wall.

Failure to Consider C-Section

While most babies are delivered vaginally, there are times when it is necessary to consider a c-section. This might be because the baby is larger than average, there’s an infection present, or the baby is breech. Vaginal or rectal tearing or uterine rupture is possible if a mother is expected to deliver vaginally under these difficult circumstances.

No one expects labor to be easy, but in most cases it shouldn’t be dangerous. If you believe you experienced unnecessary pain or complications because of the mismanagement of your labor and delivery, a Louisville medical malpractice lawyer can help you investigate the possibility of medical negligence and will work toward getting you and your family the compensation you deserve.