San Antonio Birth Injury Lawyers

Securing Justice for the Victims of Birth Malpractice in Texas

At Maloney Law Group, P.L.L.C., we know how to hold medical providers responsible for tragic losses and injuries when they fail to meet the accepted level of care owed to a patient, resulting in a birth injury. 

If your child was injured before, during, or shortly after birth or delivery, or if you lost your child or your wife during childbirth, you may have cause to bring a medical malpractice suit against the medical staff and facility that handled the birth. Let our San Antonio birth injury attorneys help at every step of the way, so you can focus on your family while we focus on your case.

When a child's birth goes catastrophically wrong, we're here to help. Contact us online or call (210) 361-2997 to request a consultation with our birth injury lawyers in San Antonio.

We've Recovered Millions for Birth Injury Clients

Maloney Law Group, P.L.L.C. has a long history of success in birth injury cases, such as:

• $7,620,000: Birth injury involving HIE
• $7,200,000: Birth injury involving HIE
• $7,000,000: Birth injury involving HIE
• $5,750,000: Birth injury involving HIE

On This Page

• What Is a Birth Injury?
• How Do Birth Injuries Happen?
• Common Causes of Birth Injuries
• Common Injuries to Infants
• Common Injuries to Mothers
• Signs of a Birth Injury
• Do I Have a Case?
• Who Is Liable for a Birth Injury?
• Damages You Can Recover 
• How to Prove Negligence in a Birth Injury Claim?
• Contact Our San Antonio Office
• Resource Section for Families in San Antonio, TX 

What Is a Birth Injury?

A birth injury is an injury suffered by an infant during, before, or shortly after labor or delivery, often resulting from medical negligence or improper care. While some birth injuries are temporary when treated quickly, most cause long-term complications or disabilities. For families, a birth injury can bring emotional, financial, and physical challenges, as they may face ongoing medical treatments, therapy, or altered life plans. If a birth injury occurred due to a healthcare provider’s negligence, under Texas law, the child’s parents may have the legal right to seek compensation and hold those responsible accountable for their pain and loss.

How Do Birth Injuries Happen?

Unfortunately, some medical professionals fail to uphold the correct standard of care. When obstetricians, nurses, midwives, and doctors make mistakes or act negligently, the consequences can be devastating to the unborn or newly born child. If you believe a medical provider’s negligent or wrongful conduct caused or contributed to your injury, your child’s injury, or your loved one’s injury, you could have grounds for a birth injury lawsuit.

In many San Antonio-area hospitals and birthing centers, labor and delivery units are fast-paced environments where multiple patients may be in active labor at the same time. When staffing is stretched thin or communication breaks down between providers, critical warning signs can be missed. For example, a delay in responding to abnormal fetal heart tracings or a failure to relay information between shifts can turn a manageable complication into a permanent injury. Understanding how these systemic issues may have played a role is an important part of evaluating whether negligence led to your family’s outcome.

A careful review of prenatal records, labor notes, fetal monitoring strips, and neonatal records can reveal whether accepted obstetric practices were followed. A birth injury attorney can coordinate reviews by appropriate medical professionals, compare the care you received to what is expected in similar Texas facilities, and help you understand whether the facts support taking legal action.

Some of the most common causes of birth injuries include:

• Failure to diagnose or treat maternal conditions, such as infections
• Prolonged labor or failure to order a timely cesarean section (C-section)
• Improper use of medical tools, such as forceps or vacuum extractors
• Failure to monitor vital signs in the mother and/or baby
• Failure to identify or address signs of fetal distress (low oxygen levels, etc.)
• Difficult labor or delivery, including complications
• Use of excessive force during delivery
• Failure to diagnose or treat conditions in the infant (jaundice, infections, etc.)

What Are Some Common Birth Injury Causes?

Some of the common causes of birth injuries include:

• Failure to diagnose or treat maternal conditions, such as infections
• Prolonged labor or failure to order a timely cesarean section (C-section)
• Improper use of assistive birth devices, such as forceps or vacuum extractors
• Failure to monitor vital signs in the mother and/or baby
• Failure to identify or address signs of fetal distress (low oxygen levels, etc.)
• Difficult labor or delivery, including complications such as a cervix that does not expand
• Use of excessive force during delivery (pulling the child from the birth canal)
• Failure to diagnose or treat conditions in the infant (jaundice, infections, etc.)

While most births do not result in serious birth injuries or complications, there are many things that can go wrong during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. If you suspect that your child suffered a birth injury, seek medical attention right away. Then, contact our team at Maloney Law Group, P.L.L.C. to learn more about your rights and legal options.

What Are the Most Common Types of Birth Injury?

Some of the most common birth injuries include:

• Brachial plexus injury: Damage to the nerves of the shoulder, arm, and hand caused by excessive stretching.
• Shoulder dystocia: Occurs when the baby’s shoulder is stuck behind the pelvis during delivery.
• Cerebral palsy: A neurological disorder that affects muscle coordination and voluntary movements.
• Erb’s palsy: An injury to a group of nerves in the neck causing weakness or paralysis in one or both arms.
• C-section errors: Mistakes during the process of performing a C-section, often putting both the mother and child at risk.
• Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE): Caused by low blood-oxygen levels, typically during prolonged labor or complicated pregnancy.
• Facial paralysis and nerve injuries: Weakness or paralysis on one side of the face due to damage to facial nerve branches.
• Fetal stroke: A lack of oxygen supply resulting from a stroke can cause cognitive injuries to an unborn baby.
• Permanent neurological damage (CPN): Brain damage during birth, which can cause permanent disability such as seizure disorders, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, and other similar conditions requiring lifelong medical care.
• Intracranial hemorrhage: Bleeding within brain tissue due to trauma during the delivery process, resulting in serious consequences for the infant’s health and development.
• Cephalohematoma: Bleeding that forms between the infant’s scalp and skull, which might not affect brain functions but can still be extremely dangerous.
• Skull fractures and broken bones: Bone fractures sustained during labor or the delivery process, often due to medical negligence, and frequently requiring surgery and long recovery times to heal.

What Are Common Types of Birth Injuries Suffered by Mothers?

Birth injury lawsuits are a way for mothers who have been wrongfully injured in the birthing process to get the compensation they deserve, as well as hold negligent healthcare providers accountable for their actions.

Birth injuries suffered by mothers can include:

• Uterine rupture: A tear in the uterine wall that can lead to serious complications, such as infection and hemorrhage.
• Perineal tears and lacerations: Tearing or laceration of tissues between the vagina and rectum during childbirth due to excessive stretching or pressure from the baby’s head during delivery.
• Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH): Heavy bleeding after birth caused by blood vessels not constricting properly, often caused by medical negligence or mishandling of instruments during delivery.
• Infection: An infection may occur when bacteria enter the mother's body through her vagina, cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, or other incisions made during labor and delivery and can cause sepsis if left untreated.
• Sepsis: Severe infection leading to organ failure, often caused by an untreated infection that starts with a minor wound sustained during the labor and birth process and requires intensive monitoring and treatment by medical professionals to prevent worst-case scenarios from occurring.

Signs of a Birth Injury

Immediate signs of a birth injury can include:

• Immediate need for breathing assistance or cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• Initiation of whole-body cooling upon transfer to the NICU
• Low Apgar scores
• Body stiffness or loose limbs because of muscle tone problems
• Seizures
• Constant, inconsolable crying

Parents in San Antonio and across Texas should also keep detailed notes about what they observe at home and what is discussed at pediatric visits. Writing down questions, concerns about feeding or movement, and any referrals to specialists can make it easier to look back and see when symptoms first appeared. Sharing this written history with a legal team later can help clarify the timeline of your child’s condition and whether earlier intervention or different care in the hospital might have changed the outcome.

If your baby is referred for early intervention services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, or evaluations with neurologists or developmental pediatricians, gather and keep copies of those reports in one place. These records often contain important observations about muscle tone, reflexes, and development that may support a connection to what happened during labor and delivery. A San Antonio birth injury attorney can review this information with you and explain how it may relate to a potential claim.

When Can a Birth Injury Claim Be Filed in San Antonio?

When a newborn suffers a birth injury due to medical negligence, the parents have the legal right to seek justice on their child's behalf by filing a lawsuit. Through legal action, families can pursue compensation for various damages, including medical expenses, ongoing care, therapy, pain and suffering, and other financial challenges caused by the injury. 

This process not only helps alleviate the financial burden if the lawsuit is successful but also holds accountable the healthcare providers or institutions whose negligence caused the harm and hardship. Families in Texas seeking legal guidance after a birth injury should work with an experienced attorney to understand their rights, prepare a strong case, and work toward securing the support and justice their child deserves.

Because Texas has strict time limits that govern when medical malpractice and birth injury claims may be brought, it is important to seek legal advice as soon as you suspect something went wrong. The rules for injured children are different from those for adults and can be affected by factors such as when the injury was discovered and whether the care was provided in a public or private facility.

In Texas, birth injury cases often require support from qualified medical professionals who can review those records and provide opinions about whether the accepted standard of care was followed. By starting this evaluation early, you give your legal team the time they need to investigate thoroughly and advise you on whether moving forward with a claim is appropriate for your family.

Why Choose Our San Antonio Birth Injury Law Firm

Families facing a birth injury need more than legal knowledge—they need a team that understands the emotional and practical realities of caring for an injured child. Maloney Law Group, P.L.L.C. is a boutique firm, which means we intentionally limit the number of cases we accept so we can devote the necessary time and attention to each family we represent. Drawing on three generations of trial lawyers based in San Antonio, we are deeply familiar with local hospitals, Bexar County juries, and the courts where these cases are often heard.

We approach each birth injury matter by assembling the right mix of medical experts, life-care planners, and economists to understand both what went wrong and what your child will need in the future. From negotiating with insurance carriers to presenting evidence in court in San Antonio or surrounding counties, we are prepared to stay with your case as long as it takes. This combination of local roots, focused case selection, and experience with high-stakes claims is what many families look for when choosing a San Antonio birth injury lawyer to stand beside them.

Who Might Be Liable for a Birth Injury?

Medical providers are typically the defendants or liable parties in a birth injury lawsuit, such as:

• Obstetricians and gynecologists: Obstetricians and gynecologists (OB-GYNs) are responsible for monitoring the health of both the mother and the fetus throughout pregnancy and identifying potential complications. Negligence or errors on the part of OB-GYNs can lead to severe birth injuries. For instance, failure to diagnose conditions such as preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, improper use of delivery instruments like forceps or vacuum extractors, and delayed decisions for emergency C-sections can all result in harm to the newborn. When such negligence occurs, OB-GYNs can be held legally accountable for the injuries suffered by the child and/or mother.
• Nurses and midwives: Nurse and midwife responsibilities include monitoring vital signs, administering medications, and assisting with the delivery. Mistakes made by nurses and midwives can contribute to birth injuries. For example, improper monitoring of fetal heart rates, failure to recognize signs of distress, or incorrect administration of medications can all lead to adverse outcomes.
• Anesthesiologists: Anesthesiologists may assist during childbirth in cases where epidurals or other forms of anesthesia are administered. Errors made by anesthesiologists can have serious consequences for both the mother and the child. Incorrect dosage, improper placement of the epidural needle, or failure to monitor the mother's vital signs can lead to complications such as oxygen deprivation, which can cause birth injuries.
• Hospitals: Hospitals and medical facilities are responsible for providing a safe environment for childbirth, such as keeping adequate staffing, maintaining proper hygiene protocols, and having the necessary equipment to handle emergencies. The same is true of emergency rooms and birthing centers that also admit patients who are going into labor. When hospitals fail to meet these standards, they can be held liable for birth injuries that occur as a result.

What Damages Can Be Recovered in Birth Injury Cases?

Depending on the specifics of your birth injury case, you may be able to demand the following damages:

• Current and future medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Lost or reduced quality of life
• Lost income or wages
• Reduced or lost earning capacity
• Future lost earnings
• Disfigurement
• Inconvenience
• Emotional distress and trauma
• Funeral and burial expenses

How to Prove Negligence in a Birth Injury Claim?

Duty of Care

You must show that the medical provider (for example, an OB-GYN, nurse, or hospital) owed a duty of care to the mother and/or child.

• Medical professionals owe a legal duty to deliver treatment that meets the accepted standard of care for their specialty and location.
• This duty exists automatically in a doctor-patient relationship.

Breach of Duty

You must prove that the provider breached the duty of care by acting (or failing to act) in a way that a competent provider would not have under similar circumstances.

Examples of breaches in birth injury cases include the following:

• Failing to monitor fetal distress
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors
• Delaying a necessary C-section
• Mismanaging maternal infections or complications
• Administering incorrect medications or dosages

Causation

You will need to show that the breach of duty directly caused the birth injury. This is often the most contested element.

• You need to prove that the injury would not have occurred "but for" the medical provider’s negligence.
• The injury must also have been a foreseeable result of the provider’s actions or omissions.
• In many cases, testimony from medical professionals (such as doctors, obstetricians, or pediatric neurologists) is crucial to link the breach to the injury.

Damages

You must show that the child (and sometimes the parents) suffered actual harm or losses as a result of the injury.

Damages may include:

• Medical expenses (past and future)
• Ongoing rehabilitation and therapy
• Assistive care and equipment
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of quality of life
• Emotional distress
• Loss of future earning capacity

Supporting Evidence

To strengthen your claim, the following types of evidence are commonly used:

• Medical records and birth logs
• Opinions from other doctors
• Witness testimony (nurses, staff)
• Fetal heart monitoring data
• Video or photographic evidence (if available)
• Documentation of the child’s diagnosis and prognosis

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does a Birth Injury Case Usually Take in Texas?

The timeline for a birth injury case can vary widely, depending on the complexity of the medical issues and how strongly the defendants contest liability. Many cases take several months of investigation and medical review before a lawsuit is even filed, followed by additional time for discovery, negotiations, and, if necessary, trial. Courts in Bexar County and surrounding counties often encourage settlement discussions, but preparing thoroughly for trial from the outset helps position families for a stronger result regardless of how long the process takes.

Do I Have to Go to Court If I Bring a Birth Injury Claim?

Many birth injury claims are resolved through negotiated settlements without a trial, but there is never a guarantee that a case will settle. Whether you ultimately appear in court can depend on the strength of the evidence, the willingness of the hospital or insurer to negotiate fairly, and your own preferences after discussing options with your lawyer. Even if a trial in a San Antonio courtroom becomes necessary, your legal team can guide you through each step so you know what to expect and can make informed decisions.

What Should I Bring to an Initial Meeting About a Birth Injury?

For an initial consultation, it is helpful to bring any medical records you already have, discharge summaries from the hospital, and notes about what you remember from the labor and delivery. If you have received referrals to specialists or early intervention programs, those documents can also provide useful information about your child’s current condition. You do not need to have everything perfectly organized before meeting with a lawyer; the goal of that first conversation is to review what happened, understand your questions, and talk through whether pursuing a claim is appropriate for your family.

Call Our San Antonio Birth Injury Lawyers Today

Maloney Law Group, P.L.L.C. provides the moral support and legal guidance you need after your child was born with a serious birth injury. When the trust you put in your medical provider is violated, especially through reckless or inept conduct, it is understandable to want to seek justice and compensation for your family. Our San Antonio birth injury attorneys understand what you are going through and are here to help you with your claim or lawsuit every step of the way.

We are located at:   
1007 S. Alamo St.,    
San Antonio, TX 78210

Learn more about how our San Antonio birth injury attorney can fight for you and your child. Call (210) 361-2997 and request a free, confidential consultation.