Cerebral Palsy Caused by Brain Damage During Pregnancy
Cerebral Palsy Caused by Brain Damage
Brain damage during pregnancy can have severe effects on a child and can occur for many different reasons. In any case where a child is born with cerebral palsy, there will be an investigation into the cause of that brain damage so that doctors can determine what happened. There may be a range of reasons that a child’s brain was damaged at birth, but some of them are more common than others are.
Brain injuries that occur during pregnancy can have many different causes. Genetics can certainly play a role. In some cases, the genetic factors involved will prevent the brain cells from forming and migrating where they would normally be located, and this can lead to cerebral palsy.
There is also a condition that sometimes causes cerebral palsy that involves the development of nerve cell fibers. These fibers have a protective covering that sometimes fails to form as expected. When this happens, it can cause problems with the nerves being able to transmit signals as they normally.
Illnesses
Sometimes, the mother will contract an infection or other ailment that will end up harming the child while they’re in the womb. This may not be known until the child is born and the condition is actually diagnosed. In such cases, it may be found that the damage could not have been prevented, or conversely, the child may have been damaged due to a lack of appropriate and timely care or due to another medical mistake. It’s important to understand that not all brain damage is the result of a mistake on any medical provider, or most certainly, not because of anything the mother did. Sometimes, people simply fall ill and brain damage is a result of that illness.
Pregnancy Complications
Children sometimes suffer brain damage in the womb due to low amniotic fluid or for other reasons. This is sometimes avoidable, sometimes, not. When a woman has a high-risk pregnancy, doctors may recommend that a Cesarean section is performed to minimize the risk to mother and child. With today’s medical technology, it’s much easier for physicians to detect these issues before they manifest into more serious problems, and because of that, children are oftentimes spared such injuries today when they almost certainly would have suffered them before.
Trauma
Sometimes, trauma that ruptures blood vessels or that causes oxygen deprivation can end up causing CP injuries. This trauma may occur in the womb or it may occur during birth. The trauma can sometimes cause the connections that provide proper communication between the nerves and the brain cells to be severed, as well, and this can lead to cerebral palsy in the newborn.
Cases where trauma could have been prevented are among the most tragic cases when children end up suffering with CP. This is sometimes the result of negligence on the part of a physician, a midwife or a nurse. There are options for the families that have been affected by this type of negligence and it’s not necessary for those families to assume that they’re on their own in these instances.
Negligence
Negligence is sometimes the reason that children suffer brain damage during pregnancy. This may be because the doctor fails to diagnose a condition or because they make a wrong diagnosis. It also may be because the doctor fails to deliver care that the child and mother need, creating a delay during which the child is injured.
In situations where negligence is the issue that caused the injury, the families sometimes sue for compensation. This is one way that they can get financial assistance so that they can support their child. These cases do not always win but, when they do, the jury awards or settlements are sometimes enough to help the family pay for needed medical care.