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Article: Prenatal anatomy lesson may avert dystocia suit.(Obstetrics)
- Article from:
- OB GYN News
- Article date:
- February 15, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 International Medical News Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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KAILUA KONA, HAWAII -- Many people--and many jurors--assume that a large pregnant woman has a large birth canal. If shoulder dystocia during delivery leads to neurologic injury of the baby, they reason that the physician must have done something wrong.
Educate patients early on in pregnancy that they way they are built on the outside doesn't necessarily reflect the way they are built on the inside, Kimberly D. Baker, J.D., said at a conference on obstetrics, gynecology, perinatal medicine, neonatology, and the law. "That may sound really simplistic, but I can't tell you the number of times I've taken the testimony of the mother, who had shoulders like a football ...