When Nurses Are Liable in Birth Injury Cases

August 22, 2025

A nurse can be held legally liable for causing or contributing to a birth injury. This happens when their actions fall below the required medical standard of care and directly lead to harm to the mother or child.

Proving this involves a detailed analysis of medical records and securing testimony from medical professionals.

If you suspect medical malpractice has resulted in a birth injury, don’t downplay your gut feeling. You deserve answers. Call us at (215) 569-0900 for a straightforward conversation about what happened.

What is a Nurse’s Role During Labor and Delivery? Understanding the Duty of Care

The labor and delivery nurse is responsible for being the first line of defense. Their legal duty of care requires them to continuously monitor both you and your baby’s well-being. They are typically the healthcare professional you interact with most during labor, making their competence and attention absolutely critical.

Core Responsibilities Include

Accurate Fetal Monitoring: The nurse must correctly interpret the readings for signs of fetal distress, such as changes in heart rate, and act on them immediately. Failing to notice or report these signs delay life-saving interventions.
Effective Communication: The nurse serves as the link between you and the doctor. They have a duty to report any significant changes in your condition or the baby’s status to the physician promptly and accurately. Breakdowns in this communication are a common factor in birth injury cases.
Proper Medication Administration: This includes administering drugs like Pitocin to induce or augment labor. The nurse must give the correct dosage and watch for adverse reactions in both mother and baby, as errors can lead to dangerous complications.
Recognizing and Responding to Emergencies: Nurses are trained to identify complications like placental abruption, uterine rupture, or umbilical cord prolapse and initiate the appropriate emergency protocols. Their quick thinking makes all the difference.
Patient Advocacy: You know your body best. A nurse has a duty to listen to your concerns and take them seriously, escalating them to a physician when necessary. Dismissing a mother’s complaints can lead to tragic outcomes.

When Does a Nurse’s Conduct Become Medical Malpractice?

A mistake isn’t automatically medical malpractice. It crosses the line when a nurse deviates from the established standard of care and that deviation is the “proximate cause” (legal-speak for “the actual, direct cause”) of an injury. To be more specific, it’s a failure that another reasonably prudent nurse in the same situation would not have made.

Common Failures That Lead to Birth Injuries

Ignoring Fetal Distress Signals: This is a frequent trigger for litigation. A nurse might misread the monitor, assume a dangerous heart rate pattern is benign, or fail to notify the doctor in time to perform an emergency C-section. The consequences of such a delay might be a permanent brain injury for the child.
Errors with Pitocin or Other Medications: Administering too much Pitocin can cause hyperstimulation of the uterus, leading to decreased oxygen for the baby and potential brain damage like cerebral palsy. Nurses are responsible for carefully managing the dosage and stopping the drug if signs of distress appear.
Failure to Manage a High-Risk Pregnancy: If a pregnancy has known risk factors (e.g., preeclampsia, gestational diabetes), the nurse is held to a higher standard of monitoring and must be vigilant for complications. A failure to recognize and act on these risks can constitute negligence.
Delaying a Call to the Doctor: Some nurses may try to manage a developing problem on their own for too long, delaying the intervention of a physician who could prevent a permanent injury. This can be a critical error in judgment.
Improper Use of Delivery Tools: While less common, a nurse improperly using forceps or a vacuum extractor without a doctor’s supervision can cause physical trauma to the baby, including skull fractures or nerve damage.

The consequences of these failures are devastating. A birth injury can lead to lifelong challenges and astronomical costs, with lifetime costs easily reaching into the seven-figure range. If you suspect a nursing error contributed to your child’s condition, it is important to have the case reviewed.

How Do You Prove a Nurse Was Liable for Your Child’s Injury?

Suspecting a nurse’s error is one thing; proving it in a legal setting is another. The burden of proof rests on your legal team to build a case brick by brick.

The Three Pillars of a Birth Injury Claim

Establishing the Standard of Care: We first define what a reasonably skillful and careful nurse would have done in that specific situation. This is based on established medical protocols and professional guidelines from organizations like the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
Showing a Breach of That Standard: Next, we comb through medical records, fetal monitoring strips, and deposition testimony to demonstrate exactly how the nurse’s actions—or lack of action—failed to meet that standard.
Linking the Breach Directly to the Injury (Causation): This is the most complicated step. We must show that the nurse’s negligence was a direct cause of the specific harm your child suffered, such as cerebral palsy or HIE (hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy).

The “Certificate of Merit” in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania law has a specific requirement designed to prevent frivolous lawsuits. Under Rule of Civil Procedure 1042.3, we must file a “Certificate of Merit” early in your case.

This is a signed statement from a qualified healthcare professional. This professional must confirm that after reviewing your records, they believe there is a reasonable probability that the nurse’s care fell outside acceptable professional standards and caused the injury.

The “Affidavit of Merit” in New Jersey

New Jersey law likewise requires an “Affidavit of Merit” to move forward with a medical malpractice or birth injury lawsuit. Under N.J.S.A. § 2A:53A‑27, this document must be filed early in your case.

The Affidavit of Merit is a sworn statement from an appropriately licensed healthcare professional. After reviewing your records, this expert must state there is a reasonable probability that the care you or your child received fell below accepted medical standards and led to the injury.

Our firm, Wapner Newman, handles the entire process of finding the right medical professionals to review your case and provide this necessary certificate.

Is the Nurse or the Hospital Responsible for Paying Damages?

Even if a single nurse’s mistake was the primary cause of the injury, the hospital is almost always a defendant in the lawsuit.

The Doctrine of Vicarious Liability

This legal concept holds an employer responsible for the negligent acts of its employees, as long as the employee was acting within the scope of their job. It’s a principle also known as “respondeat superior.”

Since the nurse was an employee of the hospital performing their nursing duties, the hospital becomes legally responsible for the harm they caused. This is important because hospitals carry much larger insurance policies than individual nurses, which is often necessary to cover the lifelong cost of care for a child with a severe birth injury.

When the Hospital Itself is Negligent:

Sometimes, the liability goes beyond a single nurse’s error. We also investigate whether the hospital itself was negligent through a legal concept called corporate negligence. This could include:

Inadequate Staffing: Not having enough nurses on a unit to safely monitor all patients.
Poor Training: Failing to properly train nurses on new equipment or emergency procedures.
Flawed Policies: Having hospital protocols that are outdated or don’t align with national safety standards.

Ultimately, our investigation will identify all responsible parties to ensure your family can pursue the full compensation needed for your child’s future.

The Legal Framework for Birth Injury Claims

The Statute of Limitations

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, a standard medical malpractice lawsuit must generally be filed within two years of the date the injury occurred or was discovered. However, for birth injuries, this rule doesn’t apply. The clock may not start until the parents discover or reasonably should have discovered that the injury was caused by negligence. For the child’s own claim, the statute of limitations is typically “tolled,” meaning it doesn’t begin to run until the child turns 18. They then have until their 20th birthday to file a claim.

New Jersey

In New Jersey, most medical malpractice lawsuits—including birth injury claims—must be filed within two years of the date you knew or should have known that malpractice caused the injury. For minors, the clock is paused until their 18th birthday, giving them until age 20 to file a claim.

Confidentiality of Records

We will handle the entire process of legally obtaining all relevant medical records, including those protected under HIPAA, to build your case. Any payments made in a settlement or verdict against a practitioner will also be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a confidential information clearinghouse designed to improve healthcare quality.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nurse Liability in Birth Injury Cases

Can I still have a case if I don’t know the exact name of the nurse?

Yes. Even if you cannot remember the nurse’s name, we can identify them through a thorough review of medical charts, staffing records, and other hospital documentation. The hospital has records of every staff member who was on duty and involved in your care.

What if the nurse was following a doctor’s orders?

This is a complex area. Nurses have an independent duty to their patients. If a doctor gives an order that a competent nurse should know is obviously wrong or dangerous, the nurse has a responsibility to question it and, if necessary, go up the chain of command. Blindly following a negligent order does not necessarily absolve the nurse of liability.

How much does it cost to hire Wapner Newman for a birth injury case?

We handle birth injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you pay no fees upfront. We only receive a fee if we successfully recover compensation for you and your family through a settlement or verdict. This approach allows you to pursue justice without adding to your financial burdens.

What kind of compensation can we recover?

Compensation is intended to cover the full scope of your child’s needs, both now and in the future. This can include medical bills, ongoing therapy (physical, occupational, speech), adaptive equipment, home modifications, special education costs, and the human cost of pain and suffering.

What if the hospital offers us a quick settlement?

Be very cautious. Early settlement offers are often a fraction of what is truly needed for a lifetime of care. These initial offers are designed to close the door on your claim before the full extent of your child’s injuries and future needs are understood. It is best to have any offer reviewed by a law firm with deep experience in these specific cases before you sign anything.

The First Step Toward Answers and Accountability

Your focus should be on your child. Our focus will be on securing the resources you need to provide for them. You have questions, and you deserve answers grounded in fact, not uncertainty. Let us help you find them.

Call Wapner Newman today at (215) 569-0900 or tell us your story through our contact form. The conversation is confidential and comes at no cost to you.