Birth injuries can range from minor cuts and bruises that heal up just fine all the way to more severe conditions such as cerebral palsy or brain damage. The more serious injuries can drastically impact your child’s development, mobility, and quality of life moving forward. While a minor bruise or two isn’t anything to fret over, those more serious injuries can completely change your life and require a massive sum of money to give your child a good life. That’s why, when your baby has been drastically injured during their birth, and you suspect it’s because of carelessness or other malpractice actions, it’s essential you follow this guide to help you understand what your options are, and how to prepare moving forward.
Getting Compensation to Afford the Care They’ll Need
As anyone with a disability can attest, being disabled has many hidden costs. Those costs are only going to increase exponentially as time goes on, as your baby becomes more independent and active. You may need to pay for assistive devices, physical, behavioral, and speech therapy, and so much more. These costs don’t usually go away, either, which can make many parents worry about how well they’ll be able to care for their new baby. That’s why it’s so important to get compensated.
The first place you should get in touch with is a dedicated law firm handling birth injury lawsuits. Specialists like these have worked with many parents and won birth injury cases before so that due compensation is awarded. In addition to this compensation, you’ll also want to look into government programs and non-profits for help and funding.
Tools to Help Your Child Lead Their Best Life
It’s crucial to have the tools and resources necessary to help your child thrive. This may include assistive devices such as braces or wheelchairs, access to specialized medical care and therapies, and educational resources to support your child’s development. Know that each child is going to be vastly different, so work with a medical provider you trust to help devise an effective care strategy together. This should include a variety of care therapies and assistive devices.
Find a Community
It can be hard for kids who are different, so start looking for your community. Parents who are raising children living with a disability tend to band together. This way, they can introduce their kids to one another so that those children can feel normal around each other instead of different. Finding a community is also important for the parents since being full-time carers (even if you also work another job) can be incredibly isolating.
Don’t Forget to Care for Yourself, Too
No matter what, remember to care for yourself too. Find and sign up for a service that offers respite workers on a fairly regular basis so that you can get out there and make time for your friends, date nights, and so on. This will help you avoid carer burnout and give you more emotional space to help care for your child as they age with a disability.