How would you know if it was malpractice?? My daughter's birth wasn't complicated. It seems like as "normal" a birth as I can imagine. She was on a monitor and I don't remember there being any problems. There was an issue a few weeks earlier where she didn't move in the womb. They put my wife on a stress test and the baby responded after awhile.
We have had two other children since. My son seems fine and is 2. OUr newborn has a cleft palatte but seems fine although she is only 2 m.o. I know that the second pregnancy was much different than the first. Our son was much more active in the womb.

It's very hard to tell as many doctors will not admit to mistakes. My mother has always been under the impression that my CP would not have been as severe if my case was handled differently. Keep in mind though that I was born in 1979 and there have been many medical advances since then.

Just a couple things that she has mentioned is that when she was pregnant with me, she went to the hospital when she was having early contractions and the doctors told her that it was nothing to worry about and everything would be fine. Had they have acted on her concerns, I may not have been born 3 months premature. Also, there were many un-necessary procedures that were performed on me that may have further complicated my CP. Had to go to many doctors until I found the right ones that knew how to handle a child with CP. Most of my inital doctors told my mother that there was not much they can do and to expect me to be confined to a wheelchair. After finding the right doctors, getting the PT and surgeries that they recommended, I was walking by the age of 4.

-Mike
Admin

I agree it is very difficult to tell. I had a normal pregnancy and normal delivery; and it was quick too, the delivery not the pregnancy. My daughter had an MRI done when she was four or five that showed she had CP, her brain had several "spots" where there was "dead" tissue due to lack of oxygen. The doc reading the MRI said that she had had several strokes.

Sometimes bad things just happen, and it isn't anybody's fault. I am not saying it isn't something you shouldn't pursue....I am just saying...

Sarah was/is my first and only child. At 7 weeks into the pregnancy, I was told there was a vanishing twin but Sarah was "ok" and it'll just be a single baby rather than two. My pregnancy was uneventful but my stomach never really grew. I looked more fat than pregnant. I told my OBGYN but she said that everything looked normal, so no need to worry. Sarah was born with no issues right at birth (her Apgars were 9 and 9). But about 15 hours after birth she had a seizure. About 5 hours later, the on-call ped wanted to do a CAT scan. She said its probably nothing but she wants to rule it out. This is when we discovered two HUGE blood clots on Sarah's brain. She had to be transferred to another hospital where she was operated on and the blood clots removed. She has no blood disorders or anything. Only a few months ago I was showing Sarah's records to a physician that I had met who spent his whole life doing research on vanishing twins. He believes that the twin died because they were sharing a placenta and there was twin to twin transfusion. The other baby was the donor twin so she lost all the blood. Sarah also looks like she had a stroke in utero. Her latest MRI (last June) shows that about 33% of her brain has atrophied. In our case, its not that someone did something wrong, but I always wonder if I would have pressed the OBGYN for more testing on why my stomach was so small (Sarah was born full term but only 5 lbs) maybe we could have figured this out. That way I could have delivered right in the hospital that was going to do the surgery and they would have done it in a matter of an hour or two after birth rather than a whole day (it could have resulted in less bleeding).

Thanks for sharing. I wasn't really looking for a reason just curious. Oddly enough as I look back on the recent birth of our 2 m.o. daughter I think we may have a legitimate concern. We had told the doctor and nurse that my wife delivered quickly after her water broke the last two times. Both left the room a few minutes later we summoned the nurse to tell her that the baby was actually coming VERY soon. She went out to get the doctor, the nurse came back immediately. By the time the doc came in the baby was crowned. He was getting ready when the babies head was out and he just got to the bed as she came out. He then frantically searched for an aspirtor to clear the lungs. She cried weakly then stopped. They sunctioned her again and then put a suction tube down her nose. they managed to get several week cries but it was evident she was having trouble. After about 15 min. she seemed fine but labored breathing. The gave her to us for the night. It was discovered in the morning that she had problems breathing and eating. It wasn't until 12 hours later they found she had the cleft palate and other issues obstructing her airways. Hopefully all went well and it won't affect her mental development.

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