Birth can be a grueling experience that pushes the female body to its absolute limit. Especially when a pregnancy has gone over 40 weeks or when the baby is particularly large, the mother may struggle to deliver vaginally without assistance.
Doctors can facilitate this process by performing an episiotomy. An episiotomy is a surgical incision made in the vagina to prevent tearing and facilitate a smoother birth. However, doctors sometimes perform unnecessary episiotomies. They can also make mistakes, such as cutting into the bowel tract, while performing this procedure.
Was your episiotomy even necessary during labor?
You might need a second opinion
When you question whether your doctor made the right decision or provided you with an adequate standard of care, you need the opinion of another medical professional. Having copies of your medical records that you can take with you to talk to another physician is probably the first thing you need when you suspect that your doctor administered unnecessary treatment and did so poorly.
In cases where you want to make a claim that the doctor should not have performed a particular procedure or offered specific treatments, the usual way to build such a claim is to demonstrate that another professional in the same field of medicine would not have made the same decision.
If other doctors agree that the episiotomy was not necessary in your case or that the way the doctor performed it caused direct harm, then you may have a claim for medical malpractice because of the birth injury you suffered. Knowing when a doctor’s mistakes during labor and delivery are actionable can help you recover from the impact of their inadequate or improper treatment.