Proper prenatal care is essential to promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy infant. When you’re pregnant, you trust that your doctor will provide you with the best prenatal care to keep you and your baby safe. However, this is not always the case, and sometimes you don’t get the proper care you need. When a doctor provides negligent prenatal care, serious injuries can result.
Common Types of Prenatal Care Negligence
Negligent prenatal care can result in injuries to both the infant and the mother. Common examples of negligence in prenatal care include:
- Failure to diagnose a mother’s medical condition—when doctors fail to diagnose a mother’s medical condition, it can be risky for both the baby and the mother. For example, conditions such as hypertension, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia require treatment and close monitoring. If a doctor fails to diagnose and treat these conditions properly, the consequences can be tragic.
- Failure to identify a high-risk pregnancy—a pregnancy can be identified as high risk for a number of reasons including the advanced maternal age of the mother, placental anomalies, hypertension, gestational diabetes, and genetic conditions in the baby. High-risk pregnancies should be referred to specialists who have experience providing the appropriate care and monitoring.
- Failure to conduct prenatal testing—an essential part of prenatal care is identifying how the baby is doing. Prenatal tests such as ultrasounds and bloodwork are important to make sure that a baby is healthy. Immediate diagnosis is important for certain types of birth defects and failing to identify such defects can lead to a negative health outcome for the baby.
- Failure to recommend a caesarian section—during prenatal care, a doctor should be able to identify when it is safer to schedule a c-section rather than take the chances of natural birth. When a baby is large or in a breech position, prenatal testing can identify this fact, and appropriate steps can be taken. In addition, when a mother has preeclampsia or high blood pressure, it may be necessary for an immediate c-section to be performed. Failure to recommend a c-section can be deadly.
Contact an Experienced Attorney
If you or your child has been injured as the result of negligent prenatal care, you should have an experienced medical malpractice attorney evaluate your case. At Bonina & Bonina, P.C., we have over 50 years of experience helping New Yorkers injured by medical malpractice. Contact us online or call us at 1-888-MEDLAW1 to schedule your free consultation. Home and hospital visits are available. Se habla español