Abstract
Birth injury is any condition adversely affecting the fetus during labor or delivery, including trauma secondary to mechanical forces or hypoxia. Birth trauma is subcategorized as either injuries produced by the normal force of labor, failure of progression leading to asphyxia, or injuries resulting from obstetric intervention. Not included in this category are injuries from resuscitation, amniocentesis, scalp blood sampling, and accidental puncture of the fontanelle from scalp electrodes. This chapter will cover birth injuries to the head, spinal column, extracranial skeleton, and organs. Complications of fetal death, intrapartum death, neonatal death, and birth asphyxia will be covered in Chap. 4, “Fetal, Intrapartum, and Neonatal Deaths”.
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Collins, K.A., Reed, R.C. (2014). Birth Trauma. In: Collins, K., Byard, R. (eds) Forensic Pathology of Infancy and Childhood. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-403-2_47
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-403-2_47
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