Each year more than 50,000 women suffer dangerous complications from child birth resulting in preventable injury or death. The U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world, with close to 1000 deaths annually.
Researchers believe the lack of proper medical attention plays a role. Delay and denial – a failure of doctors and nurses to recognize distress during childbirth and the period that immediately follows – correlates to injuries and death related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Although there are treatment protocols to help doctors and nurses act quickly before complications turn life threatening, many hospitals in the US have been slow to adopt them, leaving women at risk for sever hemorrhaging, preeclampsia, blood clots and more.
While some care providers do too little to address problems in pregnancy and child birth, others do too much. Inducing labor, performing unnecessary C-sections and other interventions contribute to severe complications. Inductions raise the risk of hemorrhages and is risky to newborns while C-sections, performed on 1 in 3 women in the US, increase the risk of blood clots, infections and complications in future pregnancies resulting in hysterectomy.
Disturbingly, only one-third of c sections are medically justified in the U.S., with factors of hospital culture, convenience and financial incentives in play. Sadly, some doctors perform C-sections out of fear of being blamed for not doing enough because injuries to a baby translate into more lawsuit liability when compared to reproductive harm to the mother.
Iowa Maternal and Birth injuries Help
Considered one of the most experienced Iowa medical negligence attorneys in the entire state of Iowa, Marc Humphrey is known for taking on the most difficult and complicated medical negligence and hospital error cases
If your family member has suffered a birth injury or maternal injury, you may have grounds for a negligence claim against the medical providers. Contact experienced Iowa birth injury medical malpractice attorney Marc Humphrey for a confidential evaluation at 515-331-3510.
