Injuries To Fetuses And Pregnant Women In Car Accidents Can Be Very Serious

If you are in an accident, you are probably concerned about your safety, and the safety of anybody that may be in your vehicle. But there may be someone else to be concerned for: your unborn baby, if you are pregnant.

Injuries and Deaths to Fetuses in Accidents are Common

It is well known that accidents can cause serious complications in pregnancy as well as a number of different kinds of birth defects. When that happens, the pregnant woman is entitled to receive damages for those defects, complications or medical problems.

The death of a fetus or unborn baby is actually common in car accidents: car accidents are actually the leading cause of fetus death. By some estimates, between 1,500 and 5,000 fetal deaths occur every year as a result of a car accident.

Any Type of Accident Poses a Risk

You may think of big, catastrophic, powerful accidents as being necessary to injure an unborn baby. Or, that the mother must sustain direct trauma to the abdomen area. But that’s not the case. Even minor accidents can disrupt the baby and the fetus enough to cause injury, and the subsequent trauma and stress caused to the parent can also cause problems in the womb.

Some common problems in pregnancy that happen as a result of a car accident can include things like:

Shaken Baby Syndrome – Much like an adult’s brain can be thrashed about inside the skull on impact, so can a baby’s. Brain damage and even death can result, as a baby’s brain is not nearly as capable as an adults of recovering from this kind of trauma.

Separation of the Placenta – Called abruption, the impact from an accident can cause a placenta to separate from the internal structures of the woman’s body. Premature birth, internal bleeding, and death to either or both the child or the mother, can result.

Loss of Blood – loss of blood is always dangerous, for anyone, but particularly so with pregnant women. The death rate for a fetus when the mother suffers a loss of blood is over 80%.

Preeclampsia – This is high blood pressure caused by the stress of a car accident, and it can lead to premature delivery, damage to the mother or baby’s organs, and tearing of the placenta.

Miscarriage – Thousands of babies are lost due to miscarriages that happen as a result of the impact from a car accident.

A Lifetime of Damages

You may have noticed that many of the conditions above carry early or premature delivery, as a possibility. Premature delivery can carry a host of lifelong, debilitating illnesses, disabilities or injuries. A child may have a lifetime of lost wages, or a lifetime of medical needs, devices or accommodations, or may be facing a lifetime without the full use of a part of his or her body, from complications that are caused by premature delivery.

Call the Knoxville car accident lawyers at Fox Farley Willis & Burnette, PLLC, today if you were injured in a car accident while pregnant, or suffered complications in pregnancy after an accident.

Sources:

cdc.gov/prams/pdf/snapshot-report/motorvehicleinjuries.pdf

saferide4kids.com/blog/pregnant-driving-stats/

birthinjuryhelpcenter.org/auto-accidents-pregnancy.html