On February 26, 2025, a Virginia birth injury medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in the amount of $3.3 million for a baby who experienced shoulder dystocia followed by brachial plexus injuries during his birth at 39 weeks, on April 12, 2019.
During labor, the baby’s heart rate showed repetitive decelerations on the electronic fetal monitoring strips. The attending nurse requested that the defendant OB evaluate the mother and baby. The mother reportedly was found at about 6:21 p.m. to be 9.5 cm dilated with an anterior lip. The defendant OB reportedly pushed the lip over the baby’s head with the next contraction, after which the baby’s head delivered after the mother pushed two more times.
According to the defendant OB’s documentation, after the baby’s head was delivered, she called for assistance with shoulder dystocia and two nurses responded and performed the McRobert’s maneuver as the OB applied “gentle” downward pressure in an effort to relieve the impacted anterior shoulder. Because the baby did not deliver following these efforts, the OB attempted to perform a corkscrew maneuver, which did not result in movement of the impacted shoulder. The defendant OB documented that she then delivered the baby’s left arm (the posterior arm) after which the baby delivered. The OB reportedly documented that the shoulder dystocia lasted one minute.
In the delivery room, the baby was not moving his right arm (the impacted shoulder). The OB reportedly acknowledged during her deposition that she used downward traction a second time during the delivery, which was not documented in the delivery record. The defense argued that normal maternal forces of labor caused the baby’s injury and therefore the defendant OB was not negligent.
The infant was examined in the brachial plexus clinic of Children’s National Medical Center at three months of age. An MRI reportedly showed evidence of a C8 nerve root avulsion. At 13 months, the baby underwent a nerve graft surgery followed by physical therapy and occupational therapy that continued to the time of trial. Despite surgery and continuing treatments, the child reportedly has permanent functional limitations in his right arm, right hand, and fingers.
Maternal Forces Of Labor
The delivery forces generated by a mother (uterine contractions and maternal pushing) are strong and have a significant effect on the body and tissues of the fetus, especially during the second stage of labor. Although most infants are born without negative, force-related outcomes, in some infants the normal forces of labor cause an injury that can have either temporary or permanent sequelae. The biomechanical situation is further complicated when an infant’s shoulder impacts the maternal pelvis, which provides increased resistance and creates added stresses within the neonatal body and tissues.
The defense often raises the maternal forces of labor defense in birth injury medical malpractice cases where brachial plexus injury to the baby occurs. Often it is alleged by the plaintiff that the attending OB failed to timely and appropriately respond in resolving shoulder dystocia.
If you or your baby suffered a birth injury (or worse) during labor and/or delivery or shortly after birth in Virginia or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Virginia birth injury lawyer (Virginia medical malpractice lawyer), or a birth injury lawyer in your state, who may investigate your birth injury claim for you and represent you and your child in a birth injury medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find birth injury attorneys in your state who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
