A recent study conducted by Kaiser Permanente shows that the number of women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes has doubled between 1999 and 2005. Diabetes is a serious disease which can have a dangerous impact on pregnancy.

The study shows that in 1999 the 0.81 percent out of 100 women had a preexisting form of diabetes while pregnant. In 2005, the amount of women with preexisting diabetes jumped to 1.82 per 100 births.

The researchers that conducted the study claim that the rise in diabetes is linked with the rise in obesity. Both obesity and diabetes can lead to serious conditions during pregnancy, leaving the child more susceptible to birth injuries.

Diabetes increases the risk of miscarriage, still birth, birth defects and difficult deliveries. It is very important that a doctor monitors pregnant women with diabetes.

Birth injury attorneys are working on cases in which doctors and hospitals have failed to properly monitor and care for pregnant women with diabetes, resulting in serious birth trauma.  
 

A new medical device is being used to help prevent the consequences of birth injury. The device is called the Olympic Cool-Cap machine. It is being used to treat healthy, full term infants who have suffered birth trauma due to lack of oxygen.

The lack of oxygen during birth can result in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, which is attributed to causing cerebral palsy or even fatality. The new medical device functions as a way to lower a baby’s body temperature after suffering from birth injury to help prevent the devastating consequences of lack of oxygen.

The Olympic Cool-Cap machine is the only medical device of its kind to be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Because the medical device is relatively new, long term studies have not shown the devices effectiveness, although the manufacturers of the device and the FDA hope that it will help thousands of babies a year.

Birth injuries are often the result of medical negligence. Birth trauma attorneys are working on cases in which life-long disabilities or fatalities have resulted from birth injuries. 

Diane Goslin received a cease and desist order from the state of Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine in August, 2007. She is being charged with practicing medicine and midwifery without a license.

Diane Goslin received her cease and desist order due to the death of an Amish baby that she delivered in 2005, despite the fact that the county coroner determined that the death was not her fault.

A rally was held on her behalf on April 9, 2008. Hundreds of Amish were present who support the custom of midwifery as an alternative to hospital births.

As a certified professional midwife, Diane Goslin does not have the degrees required by the state of Pennsylvania in order to practice midwifery. In the United States, 22 states allow a certified professional midwife to practice without obtaining a nursing degree. New Jersey is included.

Pennsylvania is one of the many states that require midwives to obtain nursing degrees and work in collaboration with obstetricians or other kind of physicians. This requirement is in place in an attempt to prevent serious birth injuries and birth trauma.

Because of the serious risk involved in delivering a child, nurse-midwives are subject to the same restrictions as obstetricians.

Birth injury attorneys are working on cases in which serious trauma during birth has resulted in life-long disability or death.