If your child suffered birth injuries as a result of fetal macrosomia, you may be the victim of medical malpractice. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, our experienced Syracuse medical malpractice attorneys are committed to holding negligent medical malpractice parties accountable for the harm that they cause.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the term “fetal macrosomia” describes a newborn baby that is significantly larger than your average infant. To be diagnosed with fetal macrosomia, a baby must have a birth weight of more than 8 pounds 13 ounces irrespective of the fetus’s gestational age. As you can imagine, a baby this big can create dangerous complications for the birthing process. Fetal macrosomia is hard to detect during pregnancy but the condition can put a child at higher risk of lifelong injuries, including cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, brain bleeds and other traumatic injuries. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that a little more than 10 percent of all pregnancies in this country result in macrosomia.
There are certain signs and symptoms of fetal macrosomia that doctors are trained to recognize. In addition, doctors can detect and diagnose macrosomia through an ultrasound, measuring the abdominal circumference, conducting the Leopold maneuver (i.e., by pushing on a mother’s abdomen) and/or by measuring the pregnant woman’s fundal height.