Billions Recovered. Five Board-Certified Trial Lawyers. Fighting for Atlanta Families Since 1958.
Shoulder dystocia occurs when a baby’s head clears the birth canal but one shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone, blocking full delivery. It is classified as an obstetric emergency. The delivery team has minutes to respond correctly. When they don’t, the harm that follows isn’t an unavoidable complication; it can be a preventable injury caused by a failure to act within the accepted standard of care.
We represent Atlanta families whose children were harmed because a delivery team failed to manage this emergency properly. Cunningham Bounds has recovered billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements across decades of personal injury and medical malpractice litigation, though past results don’t guarantee future outcomes. If you believe your child was injured during delivery, we’re ready to review your case at no cost.
Call us at (404) 609-1081 to schedule a free consultation. Our attorneys can listen to what happened and tell you honestly what your family’s options are.
How Delivery Room Errors Cause Shoulder Dystocia Injuries
Physicians and midwives are trained to resolve shoulder dystocia without injuring the infant. Accepted techniques include the McRoberts maneuver (flexing the mother’s thighs sharply toward her abdomen to widen the pelvic outlet), suprapubic pressure applied above the pubic bone, and rotational techniques designed to free the impacted shoulder. These aren’t improvised responses. They are trained, sequenced interventions.
Negligence enters when the provider applies excessive traction to the baby’s head or neck before dislodging the shoulder, or applies fundal pressure (pushing down on the top of the uterus), which worsens the impaction. But liability doesn’t begin in the delivery room. A prepared team recognizes risk factors in advance: gestational diabetes, fetal macrosomia (a larger-than-average baby), maternal obesity, prolonged labor, and prior shoulder dystocia. Failure to identify those warning signs and failure to consider a timely cesarean section can also constitute negligence.
Depending on the circumstances, liability may extend to the delivering physician, attending nurses, and the hospital system itself.
Why Atlanta Families Trust Cunningham Bounds with These Cases
Shoulder dystocia malpractice claims are among the most aggressively defended in medicine. Hospitals and their insurers deploy experienced defense teams and contest liability at every stage. These cases require attorneys who genuinely try complex cases and know how to build them from the ground up.
Founded in 1958, Cunningham Bounds has handled complex personal injury and medical malpractice litigation for decades. Our investigative team includes professionals with law enforcement backgrounds who begin thorough case analysis from the first day of representation. Building a viable shoulder dystocia claim means gathering delivery room records, electronic fetal monitoring data, operative reports, and witness accounts, then working with credible medical witnesses to establish exactly where the standard of care broke down.
Our Trial Credentials
Five Board-Certified Civil Trial Specialists through the National Board of Trial Advocacy
Four partners who are members of the American Board of Trial Advocates
One Certified Appellate Specialist through The American Institute of Appellate Practice
Recognition & Community Commitment
Our firm has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell. Beyond individual cases, our litigation has driven improvements to workplace safety and consumer protection. We also provide pro bono legal services and support charitable organizations throughout the Atlanta community.
Injuries That Follow Shoulder Dystocia Mismanagement
The brachial plexus is a network of nerves running from the spinal cord through the neck and shoulder into the arm. During a shoulder dystocia event, improper traction stretches or tears those nerves, with consequences ranging from temporary weakness to permanent paralysis.
Brachial plexus injuries fall along a spectrum:
Neuropraxia: The nerve is stretched but intact. Many of these injuries resolve within the first year of life.
Neuroma: Scar tissue forms after a partial tear, disrupting nerve function and potentially requiring surgery.
Avulsion: The nerve root is torn from the spinal cord. Avulsion injuries can cause permanent paralysis with no natural recovery path.
Two named conditions follow from where along the brachial plexus the damage occurs. Erb’s palsy results from injury to the upper brachial plexus and produces weakness or loss of movement in the affected arm. Klumpke’s palsy results from lower brachial plexus damage and can cause paralysis or weakness in the wrist and hand. A significant number of affected children live with permanent disability requiring lifelong medical management.
When delivery is delayed too long during the emergency, the infant may also suffer oxygen deprivation. Prolonged oxygen loss can cause hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a form of brain injury with potential outcomes including cerebral palsy, cognitive impairment, and other lasting neurological harm.
Recoverable Damages in a Georgia Birth Injury Claim
The financial burden a shoulder dystocia injury places on a family is rarely short-term. Children with permanent brachial plexus injuries or neurological damage often require years of physical therapy, adaptive equipment, surgical interventions, and medical care extending well into adulthood. Recoverable damages in a Georgia medical malpractice claim may include:
Past and future medical expenses, including surgery and rehabilitation
Physical therapy and occupational therapy costs
In-home care and adaptive equipment
Pain and suffering for the injured child
Loss of the child’s future earning capacity
Compensable harm to the parents resulting from the delivery team’s negligence
Both the child and the parents may have separate claims depending on how the injury has affected each of them.
Georgia Filing Deadlines for Shoulder Dystocia Claims
Georgia law sets a two-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71, measured from the date the negligent act occurred. For children injured before age five, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-73 extends the filing deadline to the child’s seventh birthday. Georgia’s statute of repose adds a separate outer boundary: no malpractice action may be filed more than five years after the negligent act, but for minors, that repose period doesn’t expire until the child turns 10.
These extended deadlines give families time, but they don’t eliminate the value of acting early. Delivery room documentation, electronic fetal monitoring records, and witness recollections are most accessible shortly after birth. Birth injury cases also involve delayed recognition; the full extent of a brachial plexus injury or neurological harm may not become clear until a child begins missing developmental milestones. Starting early preserves the evidence needed to build a complete case.
Talk to an Atlanta Shoulder Dystocia Lawyer Today
If your child suffered a brachial plexus injury, Erb’s palsy, or another birth injury during a difficult delivery, you deserve a clear picture of your legal options. We offer a free consultation to Atlanta families navigating these questions, and we work on a contingency basis so there are no attorney fees unless we achieve a recovery for your family.
Call Cunningham Bounds at (404) 609-1081 to speak with one of our attorneys about what happened during your child’s delivery.
