Chicago Fetal Monitoring Errors Attorney
Fetal heart rate monitoring is essential during labor and delivery to prevent birth injuries and to identify any potential risks of harm for the baby. However, many different parties can make mistakes concerning fetal heart monitoring, from an ob-gyn or nurse during childbirth to other healthcare providers such as the facility where the childbirth occurred. Fetal heart monitoring injuries can also occur in many different ways, from failure to conduct fetal heart monitoring to failure to recognize risks of harm during fetal heart monitoring.
If your baby suffered a serious birth injury because of a fetal heart monitoring error, you could be eligible to hold your negligent healthcare provider accountable by filing a birth injury lawsuit. A dedicated Chicago fetal heart monitoring errors attorney can speak with you today about your case.
What is Fetal Heart Monitoring in Chicago?
To understand how fetal monitoring errors occur, it is critical to understand how fetal heart monitoring works and how injuries can occur. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, fetal heart monitoring is done during the late stages of pregnancy and during labor in order to measure the baby’s heart rate and rhythm in order to keep track of the health of the baby. As Johns Hopkins Medicine explains, “the average fetal heart rate is between 100 and 160 beats per minutes,” although a fetal heart rate “can vary by 5 to 25 beats per minute.” In some cases, “the fetal heart rate may change as your baby responds to conditions in your uterus.
Healthcare providers need to take any signs of an abnormal heart rate extremely seriously because an abnormal heart rate, or a rapid shift in fetal heart rate, could “mean that your baby is not getting enough oxygen or that there are other problems.” Generally speaking, there are two ways for a healthcare provider to monitor the fetal heart rate:
- External fetal heart monitoring, which typically uses a Dopper ultrasound during labor to check the fetal heart rate. With external fetal heart monitoring, your healthcare provider will use an ultrasound probe known as a transducer, and will keep it on the belly during labor.
- Internal fetal heart monitoring, which involves placing a thin wire known as an electrode on the baby’s scalp during labor. In order to monitor the fetal heart rate internally, the wire must be run through the mother’s cervix and attached to the head of the baby. This is typically a more accurate method for monitoring the fetal heart rate.
Chicago Fetal Heart Monitoring Errors
Fetal heart monitoring can be critical in high-risk pregnancies, or in pregnancies where there are signs that the baby may be having developmental or growth problems. Fetal heart monitoring errors can involve many types of mistakes, such as:
- Healthcare provider fails to conduct fetal heart monitoring;
- Healthcare provider inaccurately conducts fetal heart monitoring;
- Healthcare provider makes an error establishing internal fetal heart monitoring;
- Healthcare provider fails to recognize fetal heart rate problems; or
- Healthcare provider fails to take appropriate action after recognizing fetal heart rate issues.
Contact a Chicago Birth Injury Attorney Today
If a fetal heart monitoring error resulted in a serious birth injury to your baby, you should get in touch with one of our Chicago fetal monitoring error attorneys for more information about filing a claim. Contact Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman, LLC for more information.
