What are the dangers associated with forceps and vacuum extractors?
Forceps and vacuum extractors are considered safe when appropriately used, but all too often physicians act negligently—harming infants who up to that point were considered healthy. Forceps, which are large tweezers used to turn the baby into the appropriate direction for birth, may be used on the wrong side of the baby’s head or at the wrong stage of labor, causing severe cranial damage, bruising, indentations, blood loss, and cephalohematoma. Cephalohematoma—bleeding between a bone and its covering—typically surfaces on infants’ heads and can cause jaundice if particularly large. Vacuum extractors, which attach a soft plastic cap to the baby’s head, essentially suction the baby out when the mother has a contraction. Vacuum extractors can cause a myriad of problems as well, including lacerations, blood clots, surface bruising, bruising under the scalp or skull, and Caput Succedaneum, which is severe swelling of the scalp. All of these injuries can lead to permanent brain damage, devel
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