Can You Sue a Hospital for Birth Injury?

Can You Sue a Hospital for Birth Injury?

Every year, thousands of families leave the hospital with more questions than answers. Birth injuries like cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injuries don’t just "happen." In some cases, they result from mistakes—a doctor’s delay, a nurse’s oversight, a system that failed at the worst possible moment.

Here’s the bottom line: Yes, you can sue a hospital for a birth injury. But it’s not as simple as pointing a finger. Hospitals have legal teams, insurance companies, and complex policies designed to protect them. Families need experienced advocates who know how to hold these institutions accountable.

At Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance, our network of lawyers connects families with experienced birth injury attorneys who fight for justice. Call (888) 894-9067 today—because your child’s future shouldn’t be left to chance.

What Are Birth Injuries?

Birth injuries aren’t rare. But not every birth injury results from malpractice. The human body, labor, and delivery—none of these are flawless systems. Sometimes things happen that no one could have predicted, much less prevented. But sometimes, those injuries trace directly back to human error or system failure.

What Birth Injuries Really Are

A birth injury refers to any physical harm a newborn suffers during labor or delivery. These range from minor bruises and fractures to severe and permanent conditions like cerebral palsy, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), or brachial plexus injuries. Unlike congenital disabilities, which develop during pregnancy due to genetic factors or maternal health issues, birth injuries occur as a direct result of the events in the delivery room.

The key point: a birth injury is damage inflicted during the process of birth. And in many cases, that damage was avoidable.

How They Happen (And Why That Matters)

In some deliveries, complications arise that require medical professionals to make quick, high-stakes decisions. But the speed of decision-making doesn’t excuse poor judgment or negligence.

The most common culprits behind birth injuries include:

• Oxygen deprivation (birth asphyxia): A delay in delivery or failure to respond to fetal distress may lead to decreased oxygen to the baby’s brain. This can cause brain injuries that result in conditions like cerebral palsy.
• Mechanical trauma: Improper use of tools like forceps or vacuum extractors can fracture skulls, damage nerves, or dislocate shoulders.
• Failure to perform a timely cesarean section (C-section): Prolonging labor when clear signs indicate distress can result in permanent damage.
• Improper monitoring of the mother and baby: Failure to monitor vital signs, misreading fetal heart rate strips, or ignoring warning signs of fetal distress allows preventable conditions to escalate into permanent harm.

The medical staff’s responsibility is not perfection—it’s competence. When they ignore protocols or fail to act according to the accepted standard of care, the system breaks down.

Why It’s Not Always "Just One of Those Things"

Hospitals like to frame birth injuries as unpredictable tragedies. “Sometimes these things just happen,” they might say. But that narrative conveniently skips over the reality: labor and delivery are medically controlled processes. The standard of care for obstetric teams exists precisely because there’s a well-established protocol for responding to complications.

Consider shoulder dystocia, where the baby’s shoulders get stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone. Medical professionals are trained to recognize this immediately and apply specific maneuvers to safely deliver the baby. If they panic, apply excessive force, or delay their response, they increase the risk of brachial plexus injuries, leaving the newborn with partial or total paralysis in an arm.

Or take hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Prolonged lack of oxygen can devastate a baby’s developing brain, and yet hospitals sometimes delay ordering an emergency C-section. According to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines, when fetal heart monitoring shows non-reassuring patterns, prompt intervention is required.

The Gray Area Between Complication and Negligence

Not every poor outcome equals negligence. There’s a legal distinction between unavoidable complications and preventable errors. That line is often drawn by expert witnesses, who review medical records to determine whether the standard of care was breached.

If a newborn suffers a brachial plexus injury after a complicated delivery, and the doctor followed all approved techniques, there may be no case for malpractice. But if records show delays in response, improper maneuvers, or lack of preparation for known risks, the hospital may bear legal responsibility.

Legal Grounds for Suing a Hospital—Blame, Responsibility, and the Paper Trail

Every medical professional involved in labor and delivery—OB-GYNs, anesthesiologists, nurses, midwives—has a legal duty to provide care that meets accepted medical standards. If a mistake or failure to act causes harm, that’s medical malpractice.

But malpractice lawsuits don’t always stop at the doctor. Hospitals employ many of these healthcare professionals, and under vicarious liability—a legal principle that holds employers responsible for their employees' actions—hospitals can be sued for the harm caused by their staff.

For example:

• A labor and delivery nurse fails to monitor fetal distress signals. The baby is deprived of oxygen for too long, leading to cerebral palsy. The hospital, as the nurse’s employer, shares liability.
• An anesthesiologist administers the wrong dosage of epidural anesthesia, leading to severe complications for both mother and baby. If that anesthesiologist is a hospital employee, the hospital is on the hook.

Vicarious Liability—Hospitals Don’t Get a Free Pass

Hospitals love an easy out. If a doctor made the mistake, the hospital might argue that the doctor was an independent contractor—meaning the hospital isn’t legally responsible for their actions. And in some cases, that’s true. Many physicians work at hospitals but aren’t technically hospital employees. But nurses, medical technicians, and many anesthesiologists and radiologists usually are hospital employees. If their negligence led to a birth injury, the hospital is responsible.

The test for vicarious liability depends on:

• Employment status – Was the medical professional a direct hospital employee?
• Scope of work – Was the negligent act performed while they were doing their hospital-assigned duties?

When a birth injury lawsuit targets a hospital, legal teams dig into employment contracts, payroll records, and hospital policies to prove (or deny) that an individual acted as a hospital employee at the time of the negligence.

Corporate Negligence—When the System Is Broken

Not every case of hospital liability hinges on an employee’s mistake. Sometimes, the hospital itself is the problem.

Under corporate negligence, a hospital can be sued for its failures, regardless of what individual staff members did. This applies when the hospital:

• Fails to properly train or vet its staff – A hospital that hires an OB-GYN with a history of malpractice claims or disciplinary actions exposes patients to unnecessary risk. If that doctor then causes a birth injury, the hospital is responsible for hiring them in the first place.
• Doesn’t maintain adequate staffing levels – Labor and delivery wards require constant monitoring. If a hospital is understaffed and a baby suffers distress without proper medical intervention, the hospital can be sued for not having enough personnel on duty.
• Uses outdated or defective medical equipment – A fetal heart monitor that fails to detect distress, an ultrasound machine that produces inaccurate readings—if hospital-owned equipment malfunctions and leads to harm, the hospital is responsible.
• Fails to enforce patient safety policies – Hospitals set protocols for emergency C-sections, infection control, and medication administration. If those policies exist on paper but aren’t followed in practice, the hospital is liable for the consequences.

Corporate negligence lawsuits focus on systemic failures rather than individual mistakes. These cases dig into hospital policies, training records, hiring practices, and internal reports to expose gaps in patient care.

The Legal Battle Over Accountability

Hospitals don’t admit fault willingly. They deny liability, push blame onto individuals, and use their legal teams to bury cases in procedural red tape. Plaintiffs need evidence—medical records, employment documents, hospital policies, and expert testimony—to prove the institution itself shares responsibility for a birth injury.

How to Prove Negligence

Hospitals don’t admit fault willingly. They deny liability, push blame onto individuals, and use their legal teams to bury cases in procedural red tape. Plaintiffs need evidence—medical records, employment documents, hospital policies, and expert testimony—to prove the institution itself shares responsibility for a birth injury.

Breach of Duty

Hospitals are responsible for providing a certain standard of medical treatment. Legally, that standard is what a reasonably skilled healthcare provider would have done under similar circumstances

When you enter a hospital to give birth, that duty of care kicks in. This duty applies not just to doctors but also to nurses, technicians, and any hospital employees involved in your treatment. Courts recognize this obligation as the baseline for any malpractice claim. Once you establish duty, you move to the breach. This is where the evidence starts cutting deep. You have to show that the hospital—or someone working for them—failed to follow accepted medical practices.

Was fetal monitoring neglected? Did someone misread distress signs and delay an emergency C-section? Did a nurse fail to follow protocol on administering medications? The breach of duty is where specific actions (or inactions) come into sharp focus.

Medical experts are the backbone of this argument. They review records and testify about what should have happened compared to what actually did. Courts won’t take your word for it; they want expert testimony showing how the standard of care wasn’t met.

Causation

This element makes or breaks a birth injury case. It’s not enough to show a mistake was made. You have to prove that the mistake directly caused the injury.

For instance, if a nurse failed to monitor fetal heart tones but the baby was born perfectly healthy, there’s no causation. But if that same failure led to undetected oxygen deprivation and the baby developed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, there’s a direct line of cause and effect.

Many states follow the “but for” test in causation analysis: but for the hospital’s breach of duty, the injury would not have occurred. Some states add the “substantial factor” test, asking whether the hospital’s conduct was a substantial factor in causing harm. Both standards aim to clarify the link between negligence and injury.

In California, for example, BAJI 3.75 and CACI 430 set out instructions for juries on causation. These guidelines explain how jurors must evaluate whether a defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm. Birth injury cases need this connection crystal clear.

Damages: Why This Isn’t Just a Philosophical Debate

Finally, you have to prove actual harm. Birth injury lawsuits hinge on measurable damages. No damages? No lawsuit.

The types of damages include:

• Medical expenses: Past and future costs of hospital stays, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and ongoing medical care.
• Rehabilitation and special education services: Therapies and programs the child needs to reach their potential.
• Home modifications and assistive devices: Wheelchairs, lifts, and home renovations to accommodate disabilities.
• Pain and suffering: Both physical pain endured by the child and emotional distress experienced by the family.
• Loss of future earnings: Projections of what the child’s earning capacity would have been without the injury.

Some states cap damages in medical malpractice cases. Florida Statutes § 766.118 limits non-economic damages in certain cases, although the law continues to evolve after constitutional challenges. These caps can restrict what families recover, but they don’t eliminate claims altogether.

Hold Hospitals Accountable—Because Silence Helps No One

Hospitals have policies. They have legal teams. But they don’t have the final word. If a birth injury turned your life upside down, you deserve answers—and action. Silence protects no one except those responsible.

At Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance, our network of attorneys connects families with experienced birth injury lawyers who know how to hold hospitals accountable. Call (888) 894-9067 today. Your lawyer will fight for the justice your family deserves.