No mother ever wants to face the prospect of a birth injury when delivering her baby. However, birth injuries do occur, and not all of them take place in the delivery room. Sometimes, birth injuries happen long before the actual due date, when care providers make mistakes in prenatal care.
Gestational diabetes is one type of condition that can develop during pregnancy and must be detected and treated. If left undetected and untreated, it can cause complications that can affect the baby.
What is gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a particular form of diabetes, a condition causing high blood sugar, that can develop during pregnancy. Most health care providers monitor and test for it during pregnancy. Some women are more susceptible to the condition, including women with a body mass index of 30 or over. However, since gestational diabetes does not cause noticeable symptoms for most women, it can go undetected.
How can gestational diabetes affect the baby?
This condition increases the risk of early labor and high birth weight in the baby. It can make the child more susceptible to Type 2 diabetes later in life. In addition, and perhaps more critical than the factors previously mentioned, undiagnosed and untreated gestational diabetes can cause birth injuries. One example is when the baby is born early and suffers respiratory distress syndrome. If an OB-GYN or other medical professional failed in her or his duty to detect and diagnose the condition in the pregnant mother, there could be grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
If you suspect that your baby suffered complications as a result of your gestational diabetes during pregnancy, you should not hesitate to contact a qualified medical malpractice attorney for a consultation. Although you may not have initially considered taking legal action, when the stakes are this high, you should seek justice for a painful situation that could have been avoided.
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