During pregnancy, you, like most other Massachusetts expectant mothers, may encounter any number of condition-related challenges on a daily basis. From morning sickness in your first trimester to the physical challenges associated with pregnancy weight gain as time goes on, you may find your journey toward childbirth rewarding yet uncomfortable or worrisome sometimes. Your doctor will hopefully do everything he or she is supposed to do to keep you and your baby safe.
Sadly, that doesn’t always happen. Many women and infants experience serious injuries when the doctors responsible for their care are negligent. For instance, a doctor who fails to carefully monitor pregnancy or fails to properly address potential signs of pre-eclampsia or other adverse conditions leaves you and your baby at great risk for harm.
Signs of pre-eclampsia
If you have no background in pregnancy health, there may be no way for you to know that you or your baby are at risk unless your doctor tells you. This is why it is so important to attend regular prenatal care visits. The following list explains several scenarios you might want to keep in mind:
- An experienced obstetrician/gynecologist will definitely want to further examine you if you complain of unrelenting head pain.
- Your doctor may notice ankle or foot swelling during your prenatal visits, which is usually normal. However, if your face is swelling or your doctor notices swelling beyond what most doctors would consider typical for pregnancy, he or she should not rule out pre-eclampsia as a cause.
- Your doctor should be regularly checking your vital signs at every prenatal visit, including blood pressure. If your blood pressure goes too high, you are at risk for brain injury.
- High blood pressure in pregnancy is often a symptom of pre-eclampsia.
- When you provide urine samples during prenatal visits, your doctor should be making sure no proteins have spilled into your urine from your bloodstream.
- Proteinuria is a potentially dangerous condition that often accompanies pre-eclampsia.
Your pregnancy will hopefully progress to term in as healthy and safe a manner as possible. If you or your baby suffer injury because of doctor negligence, your suffering may continue far into the future because such situations often result in adverse health conditions that are permanently damaging. This is why Massachusetts law allows injured mothers or parents of injured newborns to seek legal accountability against doctors who failed in their medical duties.
