Why Some Newborns Have Bleeding Around Or Inside The Brain
A newborn baby with bleeding around or inside the brain is always a scary thing for parents, but it’s more common than you might have known. The baby’s head must make a difficult journey through the cervix and vaginal canal, which can result in bleeding injuries,especially in premature babies. The severity of such a bleed depends on the location and the amount of bleeding.
Bleeding Outside the Skull
Babies’ heads are fragile, and the process of labor can cause injuries with bruising or swelling in the layers of skin and tissue that surround the outside of the skull. There are two main types of birth injuries that occur here:
Bleeding Inside the Skull
Intracranial hemorrhaging refers to bleeding inside the skull. Inside the skull there are several layers of tissue, important spaces between layers, as well as the brain matter and other parts of the brain (see the illustration below). A birth injury can involve bleeding that occurs at or between any of the layers or in multiple layers.
Types of Intracranial Bleeding
The type of intracranial bleeding injury depends on the location of the bleeding (see the illustration above). Some are referred to as a hematoma (the collection or pooling of blood) or a hemorrhage (bleeding from a ruptured blood vessel). They include:
Grading System
Doctors have agrading system(1 to 4) for intracranial hemorrhages, based on where the bleeding is happening in the brain and how dangerous it is. Grades 1 and 2 generallyhave a good prognosis. Grade 3 has amortality (i.e., death) rate around 20%, and Grade 4 has a90% mortality rate. Intracranial hemorrhages in newborns are usually minor birth injuries where the baby makes a full recovery, but in rare instances, they can be very serious, with the possibility of brain cell damage, life-long complications, and disabilities, according toJohns Hopkins.
Symptoms of Intracranial Hemorrhaging
Symptoms of intracranial hemorrhaging can include:
Causes
Some brain bleeding injuries are unavoidable, such as with very premature babies and some birth defects. Others are caused by medical malpractice, such as improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors, a C-section that should have been ordered or was ordered too late, mismanagement of an abnormal baby position (e.g., breech birth), errors related to labor-assisting medications, and other actions or lack of actions that depart from the established standard of care. If you or a loved one believe you might be the victim of negligence leading to a birth injury, get answers and get justice with a free call to:(410) 547-0202orcontact usonline.