After A Birth Injury, Difficult Birth, or Fetal Distress, Is Your Baby Reaching Their Developmental Milestones?

After wondering if your baby is getting enough breast milk or formula, new parents worry most about their baby’s development. If your labor and delivery was difficult, or your baby had a lack of oxygen to the brain during birth, wasn’t breathing when born, had low APGAR scores or spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after birth, you may be especially concerned about your infant’s growth and development.

Even if your baby had a difficult time during labor and delivery he or she may not be delayed in reaching their developmental milestones. Most babies grow in a fairly predictable pattern but the stages of development can vary widely between children, even brothers and sisters. If your baby was born premature or is a “preemie”, you will need to use your child’s adjusted age, not birth age, when looking at the developmental milestone guidelines. In other words, if your baby was born two months early, he or she will likely reach milestones two months later than what is expected developmental milestones. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists the developmental milestone guidelines from 2 months to 5 years of age and alerts you of behaviors you may want to address with your child’s pediatrician.

However, even though each baby is different when it comes to reaching certain milestones, a baby who experienced a difficult birth or birth injury must be watched closely for any developmental delays in speech, motor, neurological, sensory, or other delays so they can be addressed and treated right away. Significant or profound delays in a baby’s development may require early intervention with physical therapy, speech therapy, or others treatments to encourage maximal growth and development. The earlier cerebral palsy (CP), hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) or any other birth injury is treated, the better the outcome for the baby.

If your baby is not meeting their milestones after a difficult birth, fetal distress or a prolonged or difficult labor, please feel free to speak with one of our experienced birth injury lawyers, doctors, or nurses for a confidential and free consultation. The Beasley birth injury law firm really does understand what you and your family are faced with now, and in the future. Our collective knowledge assisted in obtaining two of the largest medical negligence verdicts in Pennsylvania history, $100 million and $55 million, as well as countless other multimillion dollar judgments and settlements. You can also contact us on line by using our contact form.