Cerebral palsy is the leading cause of childhood disability in the United States, affecting 1 out every 323 children living in America. It would be a mistake, however, to consider the neuromuscular disorder a single disease. In fact, cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a family of related conditions, all stemming from injuries to or congenital malformations [...]
In June 2016, Ohio became the nation's first state to offer a new class of savings accounts, designed to help people with disabilities and their loved ones save and invest money, under the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act. Since then, 2,315 people have signed up for accounts, the Piqua Daily Call reports. More than 1,000 of these [...]
Historically, injury victims who were successful in pursuing lawsuits received their settlements or jury awards in cash, as a one-time lump sum payment. While this framework allowed injured individuals to meet their immediate medical needs with confidence, the money often ran out quickly. As thousands of plaintiffs have learned, you gain far more than just financial [...]
For decades, the term "fetal distress" has been used to describe cases in which an unborn child appears to be doing poorly. The reason why the child is in "distress," however, has always been somewhat unclear. While "fetal distress" may be linked to abnormal heart rates and oxygen deprivation, the phrase doesn't actually refer to a [...]
Infants continue to suffer brain damage during childbirth at alarming rates. Birth asphyxia is a particularly pressing cause of long-term neurological disorders in infants and children, according to pediatricians at Duke University. In fact, episodes of oxygen deprivation, both brief and prolonged, may lead to brain damage in between 2 and 6 out of every [...]
In his 1752 Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, celebrated Scottish obstetrician William Smellie attributed a newborn's arm paralysis to "prolonged compression," itself the result of Smellie's own obstetric maneuvers. This would be the first medical description of an injury to the brachial plexus, a network of nerves in the shoulder and arm. Smellie's causal explanation [...]
Around 4 million children are born every year in the United States. Notwithstanding modest variations from year to year, that number has remained largely unchanged since 1990. Out-of-hospital births, on the other hand, have increased substantially over the last decade. The rise in non-hospital deliveries has sparked widespread debate, in both medical and parenting circles. [...]
While we often think of children suffering broken bones later in their development, many newborns sustain fractures, including skull fractures, during labor and delivery. In fact, head injuries are among the leading causes of long-term disability and death both in infants and older children, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Skull Fractures In Babies: Types & [...]
Teething can be extremely uncomfortable for children, but there's little evidence that cutting primary teeth is any more painful for babies born with orofacial clefts. The one thing that seems to hold true is that teething is an extremely individual process, whether or not a child was born with a cleft. Do Teeth Come Earlier In [...]
Caput succedaneum is a form of swelling on a newborn's scalp, usually diagnosed directly after birth. The condition, often shortened simply to "caput," is a minor birth injury common after both vaginal and assisted deliveries. Caput is usually a self-limiting medical condition, which means that the head swelling should disappear on its own with little [...]