False claims and birth trauma lead to successful lawsuit

Many women choose to write out a birth plan when they are pregnant. Most of these women understand that the birth plan isn’t written in stone. Instead, some factors of the birth plan might have to change to keep the woman and her baby safe during the labor and delivery process. Still, there are limits to what a woman should have to go through when she is in labor.

This is especially true when the woman is going through labor and delivery at a hospital that claims to offer natural births and equipment like birth bars, birthing balls and wireless monitoring during labor. Those claims can often lead women to making the decision to deliver at that facility instead of others. But, what happens when that is all just a sham and a mother ends up having a traumatic birth? Well, one couple’s reply to that question was to seek compensation. That choice landed them a $16 million settlement.

The woman in this case claims that she physically held down on her back by a nurse. She says that her baby was held inside of her when it was time to deliver because the doctor wasn’t there yet. She suffered a birth injury — pudendal neuralgia — because of the baby’s head being held in the birth canal for around six minutes.

The woman’s nerve pain is almost constant now. She says that she has to pick and choose what she expends energy on now because her energy is so limited because of the pain. She says this puts an undue amount of stress on her husband.

Traumatic births that end in a birth injury can be a call to action for some women. Seeking compensation is often possible, so you should make sure that you look into that possibility if you are injured during childbirth.

Source: AL.com, “Caroline Malatesta opens up about birth trauma, bait-and-switch advertising of Alabama hospital,” Anna Claire Vollers, Aug. 09, 2016