When Is a Birth Considered “Delayed”?

Delayed birth isn’t always a major cause of concern, but your doctor has a duty to monitor your late-term pregnancy and ensure you and your child are safe. If they fail to do so, they may leave you both at risk of serious harm.

In this post, we look at what “delayed birth” means in practice, as well as the actions you should take to protect your rights if medical negligence has caused you harm.

What Is a Delayed Birth?

Women normally carry babies for 39-40 weeks before giving birth. When birth happens outside this window, complications for both mother and baby can result. Doctors generally regard birth as “late-term” if it occurs after 41-42 weeks of gestation and “post-term” if it happens even later than that.

It’s important to note that this definition of delayed birth is not set in stone, for a number of reasons. First, it can be difficult to accurately determine the date of conception. Other factors, such as the use of oral contraceptives or irregular menstruation, may also obscure the length of a pregnancy. The “due date” given at the outset of pregnancy is an estimate, not a deadline.

Generally, however, a pregnancy that appears to last for longer than 40 weeks is considered abnormal, and increasingly problematic the longer it continues after that point. There are a number of factors that make delayed birth more likely, including:

• A family history of similar issues.
• Maternal obesity.
• The gender of the fetus. Delayed birth is statistically more likely with male babies.
• First pregnancy. First-time mothers sometimes take longer than average to adjust to gestation, and so take longer to reach the birthing stage.
• Advanced maternal age. Mothers over the age of 35 are statistically more likely to have delayed births.
• Hormonal imbalances.
• Stress and anxiety.
• Low levels of amniotic fluid.

How Should Your Doctor Address a Delayed Birth?

Your doctor’s first priority when assessing a delayed birth will be to preserve your health and that of your baby. They may conclude that the safest thing to do is keep you under observation, depending on how long your pregnancy has continued and other circumstances.

Your doctor should schedule more frequent appointments once your delivery is overdue. During these appointments, they should pay particularly close attention to your baby’s heartbeat, position in the womb, and movement. Your doctor will also request that you pay close attention to your baby’s kicks and other movements. Other tests, such as cervical exams and contraction stress tests, may be necessary.

Eventually, your doctor will need to consider inducing labor. They will have a number of options in terms of inducement methods, including:

• Synthetic oxytocin: Your doctor can administer synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) to stimulate contractions and speed up the labor process.
• Prostaglandin gels or suppositories: Prostaglandins are hormones that help ripen (soften and thin) the cervix in preparation for labor. They can be applied directly to the cervix as a gel or inserted as a suppository.
• Membrane sweeping: This method involves the manual separation of the amniotic sac from the uterine wall. This can trigger labor by releasing natural hormones.
• Amniotomy (breaking the water): This procedure involves breaking the amniotic sac with a small hook-like instrument to release the amniotic fluid, which can stimulate contractions.
• Mechanical method: This involves the insertion of a Foley catheter into the cervix. Inflating the catheter dilates the cervix and encourages the onset of labor.
• Oral medications (Misoprostol): Misoprostol is a medication taken orally or inserted vaginally to ripen the cervix and induce contractions. It is often used in specific medical scenarios or when other methods are unsuitable.

If you have any concerns about how your pregnancy is progressing, you should speak with your doctor.

Risks of Late-Term Pregnancies

The primary issue with delayed birth is that fetuses often continue to grow during the extra time they spend in the womb. A large baby poses a number of risks during the birthing process; they’re more likely to require forceps extraction and emergency C-sections. They’re also more likely to get their shoulder stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone during delivery (shoulder dystocia). Additionally, mothers are more likely to suffer vaginal tears when giving birth to larger babies.

Another risk is that of postmaturity syndrome. Because the placenta begins to work less efficiently toward the end of the third trimester, it can struggle to deliver oxygen and nutrients to fetuses at the end of long pregnancies. This can cause various complications.

As we’ll explain in more detail in the next section, you must be able to link negligent treatment by your doctor to the onset of one of these conditions using the available evidence if you want your birthing injury case to be successful. This is often difficult, as these cases are highly technical. This is part of the reason why it’s so important to hire an experienced medical negligence lawyer with a track record of success to represent you.

Legal Implications of a Delayed Birth

Birthing delays themselves generally are not the fault of medical practitioners; as noted above, there are a host of reasons why they can happen naturally. However, once your pregnancy goes past its natural term, it falls to your doctors to address the situation appropriately. If they do not, and you or your baby suffers harm as a result, you may have a medical malpractice case on your hands.

In order for medical negligence to exist in your case, four elements must be in place, namely:

• Duty of care: The doctor, midwife, or healthcare facility must have had a duty to protect you from harm. This is generally easy to prove in medical malpractice cases, as a healthcare professional will always owe you a duty of care when you rely on them for help during your pregnancy.
• Breach of duty: Your care team might fail to uphold their duty of care to you in a number of ways, such as failing to adequately monitor your condition in the later stages of pregnancy or failing to induce labor when it’s appropriate to do so.
• Causation: In order for you to be legally entitled to compensation, the breach of duty must cause the harm you suffer. If your birthing team fails to uphold its duty of care to you but this failure does not lead to any injury or illness, they won’t be liable to compensate you.
• Damages: You must suffer some form of real, measurable harm in order to be entitled to compensation.

If you suspect that a delayed birth has caused harm to you or your baby, consulting a lawyer experienced in birth injury cases is a critical step to protect your family’s rights and seek the justice and compensation you deserve.

Finding the Right Lawyer for Your Case

If you suspect that your baby suffered due to a delayed birth that was not properly addressed by your doctor, midwife, or healthcare facility, it may be time to consult with a lawyer. The birth injury attorneys at the Cochran Firm in Philadelphia offer free initial consultations, so there’s no monetary risk to you if you want us to provide an expert opinion on your case.

Contact us today by calling 800-969-4400 or filling out the contact form on our website.