Chorioamnionitis Fetal Membrane Infection Lawsuits

There are countless potential complications to consider in any pregnancy. One condition that affects both mother and child is chorioamnionitis, an often-missed infection that can occur prior to or during labor and can sometimes lead to medical malpractice lawsuits.

While treatable, this illness can have deadly serious consequences if not properly diagnosed and treated during pregnancy or labor. Immediate and long-term effects of chorioamnionitis for the baby can include fetal mortality, neonatal intensive care admission, chronic lung disorders, sepsis, cerebral palsy, and other birth injuries.

Our birth injury lawyers investigate chorioamnionitis malpractice cases involving delayed diagnosis, failure to administer antibiotics, failure to respond to fetal distress, and delays in delivery. We also investigate cases where a newborn develops sepsis or another serious infection that doctors failed to recognize and treat promptly. The question in these cases is often whether doctors recognized the warning signs and acted before a treatable infection caused permanent harm.

By Ron Miller, Miller & Zois Medical Malpractice Lawyers | Updated October 24, 2026

What Is Chorioamnionitis?

Chorioamnionitis is an infection and inflammation involving the amniotic fluid, placenta, and membranes surrounding the fetus (the outer membrane known as the chorion and the fluid-filled sac known as the amnion). When bacteria, such as E. coli, present in the vagina travel toward the uterus, they may cause a severe infection affecting both the mother and her fetus.

The condition is also called intraamniotic infection. Doctors sometimes use the term Triple I, referring to intrauterine inflammation or infection or both.

Chorioamnionitis causes an inflammatory response involving cytokines, which are cell-signaling molecules. This inflammatory response can contribute to injury to the periventricular white matter in the developing fetal brain, including periventricular leukomalacia, or PVL.

The periventricular white matter is particularly vulnerable to injury in premature infants. White matter is crucial for all of us, and damage to it can cause a host of problems, including cerebral palsy.

What Causes Chorioamnionitis?

Chorioamnionitis is often caused by a bacterial infection. This infection usually begins in the birth mother’s vagina, with bacteria ascending into the uterus and surrounding the fetus.

There are three main reasons that tend to drive this condition: (1)prolonged labor, (2) prolonged rupture of the membranes after the water breaks, and (3) repeated vaginal examinations during labor. Certain genital tract infections and other pregnancy complications also increase the risk.

Although chorioamnionitis is associated with premature birth, it can also occur in full-term pregnancies. In fact, many infections diagnosed during labor occur in women who have reached full term.

What Are the Symptoms of Chorioamnionitis?

Symptoms of chorioamnionitis can include maternal fever, foul-smelling or purulent vaginal discharge, uterine tenderness, and an unusually quick heartbeat in the mother or baby.

Some of the most important warning signs include:

• Maternal fever during labor
• Fetal tachycardia, meaning an abnormally elevated fetal heart rate
• Maternal tachycardia
• Elevated maternal white blood cell count
• Uterine tenderness
• Foul-smelling or purulent amniotic fluid
• Prolonged rupture of membranes

These warning signs matter because the infection may be developing well before doctors have laboratory confirmation. The obstetrician has to make decisions based on what is happening during labor, not what a placental pathology report will eventually show several days later.

How Is Chorioamnionitis Diagnosed?

Chorioamnionitis can be diagnosed through clinical findings and, in some circumstances, testing of amniotic fluid or placental tissue.

During labor, doctors usually have to make treatment decisions based on the information available at that time. They cannot wait several days for placental pathology if the mother or baby is showing signs of a serious infection.

In its 2024 Clinical Practice Update, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) describes suspected intraamniotic infection as generally involving:

• A maternal temperature of 39°C (102.2°F) or higher; or
• A maternal temperature of 38°C to 38.9°C (100.4°F to 102°F) with at least one additional clinical risk factor.

ACOG also recognizes that suspected intraamniotic infection may be diagnosed in the absence of maternal fever when other associated clinical signs and symptoms are present.

This is important because there is no single symptom or test that perfectly identifies every infection. Doctors must consider the complete clinical picture.

Clinical Chorioamnionitis and Histological Chorioamnionitis

If chorioamnionitis is diagnosed based on the mother’s symptoms and clinical findings, it is generally called clinical chorioamnionitis. Histological chorioamnionitis is diagnosed by looking at the placenta and fetal membranes under a microscope.

So if the mother has no obvious symptoms, but the doctors later examine the placenta and discover inflammation, that may be histological chorioamnionitis.

Another important pathology finding is funisitis, which is inflammation involving the umbilical cord. Funisitis can be evidence of a fetal inflammatory response to infection or inflammation in the uterus. This may be particularly important in a case involving neonatal sepsis or a brain injury.

The distinction matters in malpractice lawsuits. A placental pathology report can establish that inflammation was present, but it does not necessarily prove when the infection began, whether the obstetrician should have recognized it, or whether earlier treatment would have prevented the baby’s injury.

How Is Chorioamnionitis Treated?

Preventative care is important during pregnancy and labor. This includes appropriate infection screening and avoiding unnecessary vaginal examinations, particularly after the membranes have ruptured.

Immediate treatment for suspected chorioamnionitis is crucial to reduce the risk of maternal and neonatal complications. Expectant mothers are commonly treated with intravenous antibiotics. A frequently recommended treatment regimen includes ampicillin and gentamicin, although other antibiotics may be appropriate depending on allergies and the clinical circumstances.

Antibiotics should generally be started when intraamniotic infection is suspected or confirmed rather than delayed until every diagnostic question has been answered.

Fever may also be treated with medication such as acetaminophen. Doctors must continue monitoring the mother and baby and make delivery decisions based on the overall obstetric picture.

While chorioamnionitis is a serious condition, it rarely compromises future fertility and many women do not require prolonged antibiotic treatment after delivery. Treatment depends on whether the infection has resolved and whether complications remain.

How Common Is Chorioamnionitis?

Chorioamnionitis is not a rare pregnancy complication. The frequency depends on how the condition is defined and whether the diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms or examination of the placenta after delivery.

A study examining 179 placentas found histological inflammation in 71% of pregnancies involving spontaneous preterm labor and delivery, compared with 10% of spontaneous term deliveries in the study. Among women with preterm premature rupture of membranes, the rate was 64%.

These are findings from placental examination, not the percentage of women diagnosed with clinical chorioamnionitis during labor. But they illustrate how closely inflammation of the fetal membranes is associated with premature delivery.

Most mothers with chorioamnionitis do not give birth to children with permanent brain injuries. The malpractice cases we investigate typically involve severe outcomes and evidence suggesting that earlier recognition or more appropriate treatment could have prevented or reduced the injury.

How Does Chorioamnionitis Affect You and Your Child?

For the mother, chorioamnionitis can cause serious complications, including:

• Excessive bleeding during or after delivery
• Postpartum infection, including endometritis
• Sepsis
• Abdominal or pelvic infection
• Increased likelihood of interventions during labor

Chorioamnionitis can cause fetal mortality, neonatal intensive care admission, chronic lung disorders, and cerebral palsy. Newborns exposed to infection may also develop pneumonia, sepsis, or meningitis.

Premature babies are particularly vulnerable. Their organs and immune systems are not fully developed, and the inflammatory response associated with an infection can contribute to damage in the developing brain.

Chorioamnionitis and Cerebral Palsy

One of the most serious potential complications of chorioamnionitis is an injury to the developing brain. Infection and inflammation have been associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy, particularly in premature infants.

The inflammatory response can affect the developing white matter of the brain and contribute to periventricular leukomalacia. Severe infection may also contribute to other neurological complications, including injuries that occur in conjunction with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

The difficulty in these cases is proving causation. A child may have cerebral palsy following a pregnancy complicated by chorioamnionitis, but that does not automatically establish that the infection caused the child’s condition or that the doctors could have prevented it.

Our lawyers look at the timing of the infection, gestational age, fetal heart monitoring, placental pathology, neonatal treatment, brain imaging, and other evidence. We also consider whether oxygen deprivation during labor contributed to the injury.

These cases often require experts in maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, pediatric neurology, and placental pathology.

What Happens When Chorioamnionitis Leads to a Malpractice Lawsuit?

Chorioamnionitis involves infection or inflammation of the membranes and other tissues surrounding the baby, and that infection may affect the baby. If the infection is ignored, the baby’s inflammatory response can contribute to injury. But obstetricians sometimes do not get too worked up about chorioamnionitis because the early signs can appear relatively benign. This lures the doctor into a false sense of security.

The problem is what happens when the doctor continues to treat the situation as routine despite warning signs that the mother or baby is getting worse. Fever, fetal tachycardia, rising maternal heart rate, and changes in the fetal heart rate tracing can require closer evaluation and treatment.

The central questions in these lawsuits are what the doctors knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it. We often find that the timestamps in the medical records tell a more useful story than the explanations offered after a lawsuit has been filed.

Failure to Diagnose or Treat Chorioamnionitis

One common allegation in these lawsuits is that doctors failed to recognize the signs of infection or delayed administering antibiotics after the infection should have been suspected.

The key for the obstetrician and pediatricians is clinical observation and getting prompt and accurate labs when indicated. You also need to see when a child is in distress during the birthing process. Clearly, you want to avoid giving a child antibiotics unnecessarily. But there comes a point where a reasonable doctor has to act to protect the child from sepsis and brain injuries.

That may mean promptly treating the mother with antibiotics, evaluating the baby’s condition, preparing the neonatal team for possible infection, or proceeding toward delivery when the obstetric circumstances require it.

One of the most important questions for our lawyers is how much time passed between the first warning signs and the treatment the patient actually received.

Failure to Perform a Timely C-Section

With respect to the failure to perform a C-section, defense lawyers for obstetricians argue that there is support for the argument that chorioamnionitis alone is not cause for a C-section. Defense lawyers also argue that in real time an obstetrician is able to make a diagnosis of chorioamnionitis based only on presenting clinical information and does not have the hindsight benefit of placental pathology.

This might be true. In fact, ACOG agrees that intraamniotic infection alone rarely requires a C-section.

But the reality is that if the baby suffers a serious injury, we need to look back at the fetal heart monitor strips and ask whether the baby was showing signs of distress that required the obstetrician to act sooner. A worsening fetal heart rate tracing, combined with infection and other clinical findings, can present an entirely different problem.

Many successful chorioamnionitis medical malpractice lawsuits involve the allegation that the doctor should have delivered the baby sooner. The key is whether the fetal monitoring and other clinical evidence support that allegation.

The defense may argue that the infection did not warrant surgery. Fine. But that does not answer the separate question of whether the baby’s condition required expedited delivery. You cannot answer a fetal distress case simply by saying that chorioamnionitis does not automatically require a C-section.

Chorioamnionitis, Pitocin, and Fetal Distress

Another issue in these cases is Pitocin. This is a drug that is meant to accelerate delivery. Where there is a change in the fetal heart rate tracing to tachycardia, especially if there is a maternal fever or a suspicion of chorioamnionitis, the Pitocin and the overall fetal monitoring pattern need to be carefully evaluated.

If Pitocin is causing excessive uterine contractions, particularly when the fetal heart rate tracing is concerning, continuing the same dose may further compromise the baby. Depending on the circumstances, the appropriate response may include reducing or stopping Pitocin, addressing the uterine activity, and taking additional steps to evaluate and protect the baby.

We look closely at whether the doctors continued administering Pitocin despite evidence that the baby was having trouble tolerating labor. That can become an important part of a birth injury malpractice case.

Failure to Recognize and Treat Infection in the Newborn

Some chorioamnionitis malpractice lawsuits involve mistakes made after the baby is born. The obstetrician may recognize the mother’s infection and administer antibiotics, but the newborn can still develop sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis, or other serious complications.

One issue is communication. ACOG recommends that the obstetric team notify neonatal providers when an intraamniotic infection is diagnosed or other significant risk factors for early-onset neonatal sepsis are present. The doctors caring for the baby need to know what happened during labor.

We investigate cases where the neonatal team allegedly failed to obtain blood cultures when indicated, delayed antibiotics, overlooked signs of sepsis, or failed to respond when the baby’s condition deteriorated. These are different negligence questions from whether the mother should have received an earlier C-section.

A newborn with an infection can deteriorate quickly. If the baby is having difficulty breathing, feeding poorly, becoming lethargic, or showing other warning signs, the neonatal team needs to consider infection and respond appropriately. The issue is whether earlier evaluation and treatment could have prevented the resulting injury.

What Medical Records Matter in a Chorioamnionitis Malpractice Case?

One of the most important parts of investigating these claims is reconstructing what happened during labor. We want to know when the infection should have been suspected, what the doctors did with that information, and whether there was an opportunity to prevent the child’s injury.

The records that matter most often include:

• Maternal temperature and vital sign records: When did the fever or other warning signs begin? How often were vital signs checked?
• Fetal heart monitoring strips: Was there fetal tachycardia, reduced variability, recurrent decelerations, or another concerning pattern?
• Medication administration records: When were antibiotics ordered and actually administered? Was Pitocin being used, and were changes made when clinically indicated?
• Labor and delivery notes: How did the obstetrician respond to the warning signs? When was the decision made to proceed with delivery?
• Placental pathology: Did examination of the placenta show acute chorioamnionitis, funisitis, or other evidence of inflammation?
• Umbilical cord blood gases: Do the results provide evidence concerning the baby’s acid-base status at birth?
• Neonatal records: Did the baby show signs of sepsis, respiratory problems, encephalopathy, or other complications? When were blood cultures obtained and antibiotics administered?
• Brain imaging: Does an MRI or other study show an injury pattern consistent with the proposed mechanism and timing?

The timestamps in these records can be particularly important. It is one thing for the defense to say the doctors recognized the infection and provided appropriate treatment. It is another thing if the chart shows that the warning signs were present for hours before anyone acted.

But timing alone does not prove malpractice. We still need to establish what reasonable care required at the time and whether earlier intervention would probably have prevented or reduced the injury.

Maryland Chorioamnionitis Malpractice Lawsuits

Miller & Zois is based in Maryland, where birth injury cases are subject to specific filing requirements and rules governing damages. Parents often ask us how long they have to bring a lawsuit and whether the child’s age changes the deadline. It does.

How Long Do You Have to File a Chorioamnionitis Lawsuit in Maryland?

Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-109, a medical malpractice lawsuit generally must be filed within the earlier of five years after the injury or three years after the injury was discovered.

But cases involving children require special attention. Although the statute contains age-based provisions for minors, the Maryland Supreme Court held in Piselli v. 75th Street Medical that applying those restrictions to start the limitations period before a child reaches adulthood violates the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Under that decision, a child’s malpractice limitations period generally cannot begin before age 18.

This is a critical distinction in birth injury cases. The child’s claim and the parents’ own claims may have different filing deadlines. Parents should not assume that the time available for their child’s lawsuit also protects every claim they may have personally.

And families should not wait simply because the child may have additional time. Medical records become harder to obtain, witnesses forget details, and important evidence may be lost. The sooner the case is investigated, the better.

Maryland’s Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office

Maryland generally requires medical malpractice claims to begin with the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO). This is part of the state’s statutory process for bringing malpractice claims against health care providers.

Many claims eventually proceed in court after the arbitration process is waived. But the initial filing requirements still matter, and failure to comply with them can create serious problems for an otherwise legitimate lawsuit.

Certificate of Qualified Expert

Maryland generally requires a certificate of qualified expert within 90 days after a medical malpractice claim is filed, subject to statutory exceptions and extensions.

The certificate ordinarily must address the departure from the applicable standard of care and whether that departure caused the injury. An expert report must also accompany the certificate.

In a chorioamnionitis case, this may require an obstetrical expert, a neonatal expert, or other specialists depending on what went wrong. A case involving a delayed C-section can present very different medical questions from one involving a newborn whose sepsis went untreated.

Maryland’s Medical Malpractice Damages Cap

Maryland limits noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. These include compensation for pain, suffering, and other losses that do not have a direct financial price tag.

For medical malpractice injuries arising in 2026, the general noneconomic damages cap is $920,000. In qualifying wrongful death cases involving two or more beneficiaries, the applicable aggregate cap is $1,150,000. The amount depends on when the cause of action arose, not simply when the lawsuit is filed.

Importantly, Maryland does not impose this same statutory cap on economic damages. That distinction can be enormous in a catastrophic birth injury case where a child may require decades of medical treatment, therapy, equipment, attendant care, and other assistance.

Those future expenses are often among the most important parts of a serious cerebral palsy or permanent brain injury claim.

Sample Verdicts and Settlements in Chorioamnionitis Cases

Below are just a handful of examples of the catastrophic toll this condition can take during pregnancy. There is not a defined settlement value of chorioamnionitis birth injury claims. These cases are rare and, ultimately, the key is the injuries to the child and whether the obstetrician or pediatrician could have prevented the harm if the condition had been properly diagnosed and treated.

These are reported examples of lawsuit outcomes, not a calculation of the average settlement. The results depend on the facts, the evidence of negligence, causation, and the severity of the injuries.

• Illinois, 2019, $2,100,000 Settlement: A woman delivered her stillborn daughter a day after she presented to the hospital. She hired an attorney who filed a lawsuit alleging the hospital and the doctors failed to order an emergency C-section and failed to diagnose and treat her chorioamnionitis and her daughter’s fetal tachycardia. She also argued that her daughter would have survived if the obstetrician ordered an emergency C-section. This case settled for $2,100,000.
• New York, 2017, $26,000,000 Verdict: Pregnant mother alleged that doctors and hospital negligently failed to recognize that she had a short cervix (which increases risk of fetal membrane infection) and then failed to timely diagnose chorioamnionitis. Delay in the diagnosis of infection prevented effective treatment in time to prevent harm to her twins. She delivered prematurely. One of the twins died from infection days after birth. The other twin survived but the infection left her permanently deaf and damaged her vocal cords. The jury awarded $26 million in damages.
• New York, 2015, $750,000 Settlement: Baby was born with an infection that caused moderate cerebral palsy. He sued hospital and doctors claiming that they breached the standard of care by failing to timely recognize symptoms of chorioamnionitis and perform an emergency C-section in response. Claim settled for $750,000.
• Michigan, 2015, $3,500,000 Settlement: Thirty-one weeks into her pregnancy, a woman was hospitalized for an infection. The mother was discharged but re-admitted twice when her symptoms worsened. After the child was delivered, it was determined that the newborn suffered from epilepsy, cerebral palsy and cortical blindness. The mother and child hired a birth injury lawyer and filed a lawsuit, alleging the health care providers failed to consider records from the mother’s three separate previous admissions. They alleged these records demonstrated that the mother had developed chorioamnionitis arising from an untreated vaginal/cervical infection. The plaintiffs argued that the child should have been delivered sooner to prevent injury to the fetus. They cited a pathologist’s examination, which confirmed that an infection had spread from the placenta to the umbilical cord. The defense denied any departure from the standard of care in their actions. During the trial, the parties agreed to a settlement.

What Is a Chorioamnionitis Malpractice Case Worth?

The settlement value of a chorioamnionitis lawsuit depends heavily on the injury and the strength of the evidence that the doctors should have acted differently. A case involving a temporary infection and a full recovery has a very different value from one involving permanent cerebral palsy, severe neurological injury, or the death of a child.

In a catastrophic birth injury case, the largest part of the damages may be the cost of future care. A child with severe cerebral palsy may need lifelong assistance, therapy, medical equipment, and specialized treatment. Those expenses have to be evaluated over the child’s expected lifetime.

But we also have to look at liability. A tragic outcome does not automatically make a strong malpractice case. The critical question is whether earlier diagnosis, antibiotics, delivery, or neonatal treatment would probably have changed the outcome.

Our lawyers evaluate both sides of that equation. We want to know how serious the injury is and, just as importantly, how clearly the medical evidence supports the claim.

Chorioamnionitis FAQs

Getting Help for Your Chorioamnionitis Claim

The issue in these cases is whether the doctor breached the standard of care by failing to diagnose the infection, delaying appropriate antibiotics, or failing to respond to fetal distress during labor. Sometimes the central question is whether the obstetrician should have delivered the baby sooner. Other cases focus on the care provided to the newborn after delivery.

If you believe your child suffered a birth injury that could have been prevented if the doctor had met the standard of care, you may have a medical malpractice lawsuit. You and your child may be entitled to financial compensation.

We can help you determine your options. Our lawyers investigate these cases by reviewing the labor and delivery records, fetal heart monitoring, placental pathology, neonatal records, and other medical evidence.

If you think your child may have been negligently harmed by a doctor or nurse’s mistake, call us at 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.