Birth injuries may also arise from complications during pregnancy that health professionals have failed to recognize such as: 1)Asphyxia neonatorum The respiratory failure of a new born infant which can cause brain damage, paralysis and infant mortality. 2)Kernicterus A type of brain damage that causes athetoid cerebral palsy, mental deficits and hearing loss. 3)Fetal Anoxia Where the oxygen supply to the brain is cut off to teh child during the birth process. (This is a partial list of birth injuries.)

Often, parents presume that injuries to their child during birth are birth defects that could not be avoided. This may not be the case. Instead, these injuries may be the result of negligence on the part of healthcare practitioners including the obstetrician and pediatrician, and obstetric and newborn nursery nurses.