Who Is Liable for a Birth Injury: The Doctor or the Hospital?
March 26, 2025
If your baby was injured during prenatal care, labor, delivery, or postnatal care, understanding who may be liable for the birth injury is important. While some birth injuries result from genetic conditions and other natural causes, many birth injuries can—and should—be prevented with professional medical care.
When medical negligence is to blame for a baby’s birth injury, the baby’s parents can—and should—take legal action. Serious birth injuries can lead to a lifetime of financial and non-financial costs. Filing a birth injury claim allows parents to hold their doctor or the hospital accountable for these costs, and hiring a lawyer in this scenario costs nothing out-of-pocket.
When Doctors Can Be Held Liable for a Birth Injury
Doctors can be held liable for birth injuries in a wide range of circumstances. Some of the most common medical mistakes that can justify birth injury claims against doctors include:
- Flawed Diagnoses of Maternal or Fetal Health Risks – Diagnostic errors are among the most common grounds for medical malpractice claims in all healthcare scenarios. Flawed diagnoses of maternal or fetal health risks can lead to preventable birth injuries—and they can justify birth injury claims against doctors in many cases.
- Failure to Timely Diagnose Complications – Failure to timely complications during labor and delivery can also lead to preventable birth injuries. Even if your family’s doctor ultimately made an accurate diagnosis, if the diagnosis came too late, this can warrant a claim for liability.
- Failure to Properly Perform a C-Section Delivery – Delayed C-section deliveries and errors during C-section procedures are common causes of preventable birth injuries as well. Here too, if your family’s doctor made a mistake that could—and should—have been prevented, then your family’s doctor may be fully liable for your baby’s condition.
- Improper Use of Forceps, Vacuum Extractors, or Other Medical Tools – Birth injuries can also result from doctors’ improper use of forceps, vacuum extractors, and other medical tools. With today’s medical knowledge and technology, there are few excuses for using these tools improperly during a baby’s delivery.
- Inadequate Monitoring and/or Failure to Intervene – Inadequate monitoring both during labor and after childbirth can result in failure to timely diagnose birth injury risks. Failure to promptly intervene upon discovering a fetal or neonatal risk can lead to preventable harm as well.
When Hospitals Can Be Held Liable for a Birth Injury
Since doctors aren’t always hospital employees, hospitals can’t be held liable for doctors’ negligence in all cases. But, they can be held liable for doctors’ negligence in some cases, and hospitals can often face liability for birth injuries on other grounds as well. Some example of potential grounds for holding hospitals liable for birth injuries include:
- Vicarious Liability for a Doctor’s Medical Malpractice – As we just mentioned, hospitals can be held liable for doctors’ negligence in some cases. If a doctor is a hospital employee, or if a hospital fails to conduct adequate screening before allowing a doctor to work in its facilities, then the hospital could be vicariously liable for the doctor’s malpractice.
- Negligent Hiring – Hospitals can also be held liable for negligently hiring physician assistants, nurses, and other medical professionals and staff. If another member of your family’s healthcare team is responsible (or even partially responsible) for your baby’s birth injury, this could justify a claim against the hospital.
- Inadequate Staffing – Inadequate staffing is a concern in many hospitals as well. If inadequate staffing leads to a preventable birth injury, this can establish clear grounds for liability under Illinois law.
- Issues with Hospital Facilities or Medical Equipment – Along with staffing-related issues, facilities and equipment-related issues can also justify claims against hospitals in Illinois. This includes everything from failing to maintain sanitary facilities to failing to properly inspect and service vacuum extractors and other delivery tools.
- Administrative Negligence – Finally, administrative negligence can justify liability claims against hospitals for preventable birth injuries as well. Improper triage, failing to maintain adequate records, and mixing up patient records are three common examples—among many others—of administrative negligence in hospitals.
If your family is struggling to cope with a birth injury diagnosis, our lawyers can help you make informed and confident decisions about your next steps. We handle birth injury claims against doctors and hospitals throughout Illinois, and we have extensive experience recovering just compensation for families facing the consequences of medical malpractice.
Contact Coplan + Crane today online or at 312-982-0588 to schedule a FREE case evaluation. We help clients across Illinois, including Chicago, Oak Park, Rockford, and other areas. We handle accident cases on a contingency basis, which means you don’t pay unless we win.
