It is a joyous moment when you welcome a new member into the family. Before the delivery, you do everything to ensure that the child is delivered safe and healthy. At the hospital, all the health care providers attending to you have a duty of care to you and your child. Sometimes, during labor or delivery, some things can happen that lead to the child sustaining injuries.
Suppose your child suffers serious injuries during birth due to a healthcare provider’s negligent actions or omissions. In that case, you can contact a birth injury attorney in Kentucky to help you get justice. However, there are ways you can use to reduce the chances of your child being injured during delivery:
Seek Prenatal Care Early
Once you know that you are pregnant, you should make prenatal appointments as recommended by your doctor. You should also ensure that you attend all the appointments. If you cannot make it to an appointment, you can move it to another date. Prenatal care can help prevent birth injuries because your doctor will track your child’s development from early on to birth.
Choose a Qualified Obstetrician
An obstetrician is a doctor who specializes in pregnancy and childbirth. You need an obstetrician who is qualified and has enough experience dealing with expectant mothers. You can ask friends and families to give you recommendations on the best obstetrician in town. You can research all the obstetricians in your area, and select the one you feel is the best. An excellent obstetrician is unlikely to become negligent and let your child get injured.
Notify Your Doctor of Any Abnormalities
If you feel something is wrong with your body, you should report it to your obstetrician immediately. It does not matter how minor it is, do not assume that it will go away on its own. You should not take too long to inform them; you can call them or tell them during your next appointment. Your doctor will treat all the issues you have and control medical issues that can harm the child, for example, gestational diabetes.
Ask Questions and Raise Concerns
You have to show concern about the health of your child. If you do not understand anything your doctor is doing, ask all the questions you have. You should also raise all the concerns you have if you think something wrong is going on. For example, if you are experiencing labor pains and no nurse or doctor has attended to you, you should complain and request someone to attend to you.
Avoid Harmful Behaviors
Smoking and drinking alcohol while pregnant will increase the risk of your child suffering a birth injury. Smoking cigarettes while pregnant will lead to the child being smaller than normal. Smaller babies have a higher risk of sustaining injuries during birth. Taking alcohol and other recreational drugs could lead to underdevelopment of the child’s brain.
There are also some prescription as well as non-prescription drugs that expectant mothers should not take. You may visit a drug store and buy a certain over the counter medicine, and you might not be aware that that particular drug is not suitable for pregnant women. Therefore, you should avoid buying drugs without the authorization of your doctor.
Contact a Birth Injury Attorney
Most of the time, birth injuries are unexpected, and there is nothing medical practitioners can do to prevent them. However, some birth injuries are caused by the negligent actions and misconduct of health care providers.
If you believe that your child sustained birth injuries due to a doctor or nurse’s negligent actions, you can contact a birth injury attorney to help you get justice for your child.
