Every parent hopes that their child will be born happy and healthy. Unfortunately, when mistakes are made in the delivery room or a member of the hospital staff misses a warning sign, children and mothers can suffer serious injuries that can require everything from extensive medical treatment to long-term care.
If an infant gets cerebral palsy because of brain damage prior to being born or during the delivery process, it is referred to as congenital cerebral palsy. Data shows that the vast majority of all people who have cerebral palsy have the congenital form Babies who are born weighing less than 5.5 pounds could be at a higher risk for congenital CP as well as those who are born prematurely.
As functioning members of society, we can easily imagine what we would miss if we lost the ability to perform even the most simplest of tasks. Perhaps that’s why it’s easy for us to consider the opportunities and life experiences children miss out on when they suffer a birth injury.
Although there has been a decrease in the overall number of birth injuries reported in the United States in recent decades, there is still a very high risk of it occurring.
According to statistics, one in 9,714 births in the United States includes a birth injury. Roughly 28,000 birth injuries are reported annually in the country. The National Healthcare Quality Report estimates that 5.08 per 1,000 birth injuries occurred in female infants and 6.68 per 1,000 occurred in male infants.
The most common surgery performed in hospitals in the United States is not on the heart or back or hips or knees. It is a caesarean section. Approximately 1 of every 3 infants born in the country are delivered by c-section each year, which is about 1.3 million babies.
Approximately 1 of every 3 babies in the United States is delivered by cesarean section, accounting for about 1.3 million each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 33% of women in the US. had a cesarean delivery in 2011. The rate of c-sections in the country has increased by nearly 60% since 1996. In 2014, the cesarean delivery rate was 32.3% of all births.
Of every 1,000 babies born in the United States, 6 to 8 are born with a birth injury. This means that roughly 1 in every 9,714 people in the country is born with some type of a birth injury. Statistics reveal that approximately 28,000 infants are born with birth defects every year.
A recent study out of the University of California San Francisco, published in the prestigious medical journal Pediatrics, finds that a drug commonly used to treat anemia may also be useful for treatment in babies that suffer from certain birth injuries. The study points to two specific benefits:
According to a study in 2006, every year, medical errors in the United States cause harm to roughly 1.5 million people across the country. Each year, approximately 28,000 babies are born with birth injuries. According to Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) data, the highest number of birth injuries is caused by the use of forceps or vacuums – 160.5 deliveries out of every 1,000. It is also revealed that over a period of one year, almost 157,700 injuries that are potentially avoidable are sustained by mothers and babies during childbirth.
