brachial plexus injuries?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

How do ob nurses handle deliveries where a shoulder dystocia has resulted in a brachial plexus injury? Could it have been prevented? How? Did the doc just pull too hard too hard on the infant's head? Why does the injury occur? Is it malpractice? Thanks so much for any input on this!

I am very interested in how your child and you are doing! ~ Nikki ~ Feel free to Pm me.

Yes, Kday, I am talking about my baby. He is the one who was injured at birth. I didn't want to say that I was the mother and this happend to me because I wanted to get unbiased opinions on how nurses deal with this type of emergency. I know how often mothers are blamed for these injuries and didn't want that to be an issue here. As you've read above, however, it's second-nature to blame the patient and protect the doctor.

Also, I am an RN, so I know full well what varying/variable decels are as well as turtling. Also, I'm sure I am "intense" and "vaguely hostile" about this subject, and that's because it's my child who's injured. I'm a little offended that you'd think you could "teach me" anything about this injury at this point. Once my child was diagnosed as having this lifelong disability, I had no choice but to become the subject matter expert.

I've read many of your posts and generally enjoy them and agree with a lot of things you have to say. All I'm asking is that you, and others, learn all the facts concerning brachial plexus injuries before you make snap judgements and place blame. Thank you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

So very sorry about your child's birth injury. That must continue to be so difficult for you.

I have worked in OB for a year now (6 months as an RN), so thus far, this is what I gather: in our area it is so hard to tell you're going to have an emergency until you are in the midst of it. Yes, there are warning signs, but as the previous poster said, nothing is ever absolute in OB. The fact of the matter is, EFW's can be off by as much as a pound either way as you get closer to term; as much as we would love to, no one ever knows how much a baby is going to way until s/he is on the scales. Believe me, when something like that happens, we replay the whole situation over and over countless times in our heads to think of what we could have done differently to prevent the outcome we unfortunately ended up with.

I am not excusing what happened to you and your child. That is horrible. It is understandable that you are searching for someone to blame as you must feel helpless in the situation.:icon_hug:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case Mgmt; Mat/Child, Critical Care.

Just FYI, this post is about 5yrs old or so.....

After reviewing this thread, I don't think any of us have enough information to give the OP any advice. The OP states it was her child and that she is an RN. However there are many inconsitencies w/her posts.

I am very sorry for the outcome for her child and only hope that he is doing well today!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Just FYI, this post is about 5yrs old or so.....

After reviewing this thread, I don't think any of us have enough information to give the OP any advice. The OP states it was her child and that she is an RN. However there are many inconsitencies w/her posts.

I am very sorry for the outcome for her child and only hope that he is doing well today!

Guess I should pay more attention to times and dates of threads . . . it's a little more obvious when they have tons of pages. Little less obvious when there's only two pages.:imbar My mistake.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Thread very old. Not likely OP is going to be around to reply. Closed. OP more than welcome to update as sees fit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment