Holding Indiana Medical Professionals Accountable For Birth-Related Injuries

Last updated on July 2, 2025

Unfortunately, both a baby and a mother can be injured during the delivery process as a result of a delivering health care provider’s failure to comply with reasonable standards of medical care under the circumstances that exist. A birth-related injury to a baby can have lifelong adverse consequences for both the child and the child’s family.

This is particularly true when the birth-related injury involves neurologic injury to the baby’s brain or extremities. Such injuries can result in substantial medical expenses, lost income for the child and the child’s parents, and future support care for the child. Such injuries can also result in devastating, lifelong impairment in a child’s physical, cognitive and emotional condition.

Our Indiana birth injury attorneys are serious and dedicated in our representation of babies who have sustained birth-related injuries.

If you are concerned that you have a child who has sustained a birth-related injury that may be the result of substandard health care during the pregnancy, labor or delivery process, our Indiana birth injury lawyers are ready to help you. We will conduct a thorough investigation of the facts regarding the pregnancy, labor and delivery to determine if the treatment provided to the mother and child was reasonable and safe or failed to comply with reasonable standards of medical care.

We have substantial knowledge, training, and experience in handling this type of litigation and have collected many millions of dollars for children who have sustained negligently caused birth injuries.

Contact The Cline Law Firm online or by phone at 317-505-1760 for a free consultation from our award-winning attorneys.

Types Of Birth Injuries That Can Be Caused By Negligent Health Care

Babies can be injured in several different ways as a result of negligent health care during the pregnancy, labor and/or delivery process. Common types of birth injuries that can cause severe and permanent injuries, impairment, harms and losses to a child include the following:

• Brain injury: A baby can sustain a permanent and devastating brain injury during pregnancy or during the labor and delivery process. The primary way that a baby can sustain a brain injury is due to inadequate oxygenation during the labor and delivery process. This can be caused by a lack of adequate oxygenated blood flow to the baby through the umbilical cord caused by umbilical cord compression or prolapse or by inadequate blood flow through the umbilical cord caused by disruption of the placenta or the umbilical cord. The neurologic status of a baby’s brain in utero is monitored through a fetal heart rate monitor during labor. Mistakes in the interpretation of fetal heart rate tracings or failure to timely review fetal heart rate tracings can result in permanent injury to a baby’s brain in utero during labor and prior to delivery.
• Cerebral palsy: Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It is the most common motor disability in childhood. Symptoms can include exaggerated reflexes, floppy or rigid limbs, poor coordination, and tremors. Although cerebral palsy can be a congenital process unrelated to the birth process, cerebral palsy can also be caused by the negligent mismanagement of labor and delivery, primarily when a baby does not receive adequate oxygen, blood or other nutrients from the umbilical cord during labor and delivery. In addition to physical injuries and impairments, children with cerebral palsy can also have cognitive and emotional injuries.
• Brachial plexus nerve injuries: These injuries occur when a baby’s shoulder becomes impacted upon the mother’s pubic bone during the vaginal delivery process. If a delivering health care provider fails to comply with reasonable standards of medical care in relieving the shoulder impaction, then nerves leaving the baby’s spinal cord and entering a baby’s upper extremity can be stretched, ruptured or pulled off of the spinal cord, resulting in permanent injury and impairment in the affected upper extremity. This type of injury is also known as Erb’s Palsy or Klumpke’s Palsy depending upon the specific nerves injured.
• Injuries from infection such as Group B Strep and Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV): A baby can be exposed to harmful bacteria and viruses during the labor and delivery process. Exposure to harmful bacteria and viruses can cause severe and permanent injuries and impairments in the baby if bacterial or viral infections are not timely diagnosed and treated.
• Injuries caused by obstetrical instruments: A baby can be injured during the delivery process through the use of forceps or a vacuum extraction device. These injuries can include skull fractures, brain injury, scalp hematomas and physical disfigurement.
• Death: Babies can die during the labor and delivery process if they do not receive adequate oxygenation from blood through the umbilical cord during labor and delivery or as a result of an infectious process during labor.

How Our Birth-Injury Team Can Help You And Your Child

We have 60 years of combined experience in handling birth injury cases. We have successfully handled scores of such cases for Indiana families. We are familiar with the medical issues and medical literature relevant to birth injury litigation. We have consulted with obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists and pediatric neurologists throughout the country on the cases that we have handled for fellow Hoosiers throughout the state.

Before hiring an attorney to handle such a serious legal matter as a birth injury lawsuit, be certain to interview the attorney regarding his or her direct experience in handling such complicated litigation. Ask the attorney if he or she will be directly handling the lawsuit for your family or will be referring it out to another attorney and about his or her experience in trying such cases before a jury or a judge. Look for an attorney who has the knowledge, experience, courage, drive and track record to handle the complicated matter with which you will entrust the attorney.

Seek justice on behalf of your loved one. Call our Indiana birth injury lawyers today to schedule a same-day or next-day free consultation at 317-505-1760. We look forward to hearing your story and to representing your child and your family. We represent people throughout Indiana from our Carmel office.