Birth Injury Attorneys

The Affects of Forceps or Other Delivery Aides on Infants

Modern archeologists have found forceps like objects to assist in child birth in ancient India and Rome, the usage of these products in the United States have gone down significantly, even in the past fifty years. However, these tools have had devastating effects on infants and their families that do not go unnoticed.

Typically, the forceps do not cause brain damage to the child, but they do case severe bruising. The instrument, when inserted into the birth canal do not leave any room for the child coming through and cause unnecessary pressure on the head of the infant. Occasionally, the soft bone in the skull can be temporarily distorted with the use of the forceps. Since the skull is designed in segments for the specific purpose of coming through the birth canal, the skull will generally pull back together with no evidence remaining of the former distortion.

After the forceps were made unpopular, doctors tried a new, but similar approach of vacuum extraction. With vacuum extraction, as the name suggests, the infant is pulled from the birth canal, not with metal sticks, but with a vacuum head exerting pressure. There were more immediate concerns with vacuum extraction, and the appearance of sever scalp bruising, or scalp lacerations. The infant would typically recover from this rather quickly, but the traumatic appearance right after bath would have lasting implication for the parents of the child.

If you or your child were affected at birth by delivery using forceps or vacuum extraction please contact Williams and Kherkher at 866-950-9000 for an initial consultation.