Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center Birth Injury Lawyers

This page is for families who welcomed a baby at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center, at 5601 De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills, in Los Angeles County, California, and who now have questions about what happened during labor or delivery. Maybe your baby needed time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Maybe a doctor mentioned a nerve injury, a brain bleed, low oxygen or a delay in development. Or maybe you simply feel that nobody has explained the whole story. You are not alone, and wanting answers is reasonable.

The goal of this page is to help you understand your baby's situation and your options in plain language. It explains what this hospital offers according to its own website and its report to the state, what the most common birth injuries are, which warning signs deserve a call to your pediatrician, who may be involved in a birth-injury claim in general, and how an independent review of the medical records works. Nothing here says that anything went wrong at this hospital. Most births go well, and every case depends on its own records.

If your child has an urgent medical concern right now, call your pediatrician or 911 first. Legal questions can wait for a calm moment, but they should not wait for years, because California sets strict deadlines. This page is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Labor and delivery at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center

Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center is located at 5601 De Soto Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County. The state's hospital report lists it as Kaiser Foundation Hospital – Woodland Hills, run by a nonprofit corporation that is part of Kaiser Permanente. The main phone number in that report is 818-719-3369. The hospital's own maternity page says Kaiser Permanente offers prenatal care and labor and delivery services at the Woodland Hills campus, with a private labor room and a private family-centered postpartum room, each with its own bathroom and shower. Its Labor and Delivery and Mother and Baby Care Suites department is listed on the third floor.

According to the hospital's 2024 report to the state (HCAI), the hospital cared for 1,613 newborns in its newborn nursery during 2024. The same report lists 12 licensed intensive-care newborn (NICU) beds and 172 NICU discharges for the year. Those numbers give a sense of the size of the program: a community hospital delivering a large number of babies every year, with a NICU available for newborns who need extra support. We have not found a NICU level of care published by the hospital or by a state page, so we do not state one here.

Many families who deliver here are Kaiser Permanente members who receive their prenatal care, delivery and pediatric care within the same health system. That can be convenient, and it also means that a family's records may be spread across several departments, such as obstetrics, labor and delivery, the newborn nursery, the NICU and pediatrics. Knowing this helps later, when you decide which records to request.

Birth injuries families ask about after a difficult delivery

Doctors use the words birth injury for harm to a baby that is linked to labor and delivery. The Cleveland Clinic lists several types: swelling or bleeding under the scalp, broken collarbones and other fractures, bleeding inside the skull, nerve injuries such as brachial plexus injury, and brain injury from lack of oxygen. Risk factors include a very large or very small baby, a breech position, a long or very fast labor, maternal diabetes, and the use of tools such as forceps or vacuum. Having a risk factor does not mean an injury was caused by anyone's mistake, and many injuries happen even with excellent care.

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or HIE, is brain injury from too little oxygen or blood flow around the time of birth. Newborns with HIE are usually cared for in a NICU, sometimes with cooling treatment. Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions that affect movement, balance and posture. The CDC explains that most cerebral palsy is congenital, meaning it begins before or during birth, and that the cause is often unknown. The CDC also notes that oxygen loss during birth is now thought to explain only a small share of cases. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) lists other possible causes, including infections, bleeding in the brain and problems with the placenta or umbilical cord. This is why a careful review of the records matters: it separates what was a medical risk from what may have been preventable.

Erb's palsy, or brachial plexus palsy, is damage to the nerves that control the shoulder, arm and hand. MedlinePlus explains that it is often linked to a difficult delivery of the shoulders, called shoulder dystocia, and that many babies recover within three to four months, while others have lasting weakness and need therapy or surgery. Group B strep (GBS) is a bacterium that can pass to a baby and cause serious infection. The CDC describes early-onset disease in the first week of life and late-onset disease from 7 to 89 days, and says that early-onset disease can be prevented in many cases with antibiotics given during labor. Mothers can be hurt too: heavy bleeding after birth (postpartum hemorrhage), infection and tears can have long-term effects, and mothers deserve answers as well.

Warning signs in the first days, weeks and months

In the first hours and days, tell your baby's nurse or doctor right away, and seek emergency care once you are home, if your baby has trouble breathing, is very sleepy or hard to wake, is limp or stiff, has seizures or unusual jerking movements, will not feed, has a fever or a low body temperature, or has fewer wet diapers than expected. The Cleveland Clinic also lists not moving an arm or leg, swelling or bruising, and hoarse or noisy breathing as reasons to seek care. For GBS infection, the CDC notes that babies can show breathing trouble, low energy and signs of sepsis very soon after birth, or weeks later in late-onset disease.

In the first months, watch how your baby moves. The CDC says the main early sign of cerebral palsy is a delay in motor milestones such as rolling over, sitting, crawling or walking. In babies under 6 months, a head that drops back when lifted, a baby who feels very stiff or very floppy, or a baby who arches the back are signs worth mentioning. After 6 months, difficulty rolling in either direction, or reaching with only one hand while keeping the other fisted, deserve attention. After 10 months, crawling that drags one side of the body is another sign. A baby whose arm stays still or is held against the body after birth should be seen promptly.

Many of these signs have harmless explanations, and every baby develops at their own pace. But if you are worried, trust your instinct. Write down what you see, with dates, and ask your pediatrician for an evaluation. You do not need a doctor's referral to ask for early intervention services in California. Early therapy can make a real difference, whether or not a legal claim is ever made.

Who may be responsible in a birth-injury claim?

In a birth-injury claim, many different people may have been involved in the care of mother and baby, and who may be responsible depends on the facts. Hospital nurses and labor and delivery staff watch the mother and baby during labor, read the fetal heart monitor and call the doctor when needed. Obstetricians and midwives manage the labor and the delivery. Anesthesiologists care for pain control and monitor the mother. Neonatologists, pediatricians and NICU staff care for the baby after birth. Each of them may have a role in the story, and a review looks at all of them, not just one.

Another important question is who employed whom. Some doctors are employees of the hospital or its medical group. Others are independent physicians who see patients at the hospital but work for their own practice. At a Kaiser Permanente hospital, physicians may practice through a medical group that works with the hospital, so a family may be dealing with more than one organization. Who is legally responsible for a particular person's actions can depend on these relationships, which is why we look at contracts, records and the roles of each provider before drawing any conclusion.

It is also possible that nobody is responsible. Some babies are born with conditions that no one could have prevented, and a claim requires more than a bad outcome: it requires that the care fell below accepted medical standards and that this caused the harm. An honest independent review will tell you if that does not appear to be the case, and that answer can also bring some peace.

How an independent expert review of the delivery works

An independent review starts with the complete medical record of mother and baby. Reviewers who are doctors and nurses in the right specialty look at the prenatal chart, the labor notes and orders, and the delivery record. A key document is the fetal heart rate monitoring strip, which shows how the baby's heart rate responded to contractions over hours. They also read the Apgar scores at 1, 5 and 10 minutes, which are quick measures of how the baby was doing right after birth, and the umbilical cord blood gases, which show the baby's oxygen and acid levels at birth.

The reviewers then follow the baby into the newborn nursery or NICU. NICU notes, medication and cooling records, lab results, seizure monitoring, head ultrasounds and brain MRI scans help explain the type, timing and extent of any injury. Imaging can sometimes show whether an injury likely happened before labor, during labor or after birth, which is often central to the answer. For nerve and fracture injuries, the delivery notes and the description of any maneuvers are important.

The result is a medical opinion on whether the care met accepted standards and whether any departure caused the child's condition. You do not have to decide anything to ask for a review, and you do not have to be sure that something went wrong. A review is how you find out.

What families can do now: step by step

First, take care of your child. Keep every pediatric, specialist and therapy appointment, and ask the doctors to explain the diagnosis, the expected course and what support your child needs. Second, write your own timeline while it is fresh: when labor started, when you arrived, who you spoke with, what you were told, and when you first noticed any concern. Do not name people in public posts or social media, and keep photos, discharge papers, bills and any letters in one folder.

Third, request the records. Ask for the mother's labor and delivery chart and the baby's newborn and NICU chart, including the fetal monitoring strips, and ask for them as complete copies, in electronic format when possible. Fourth, talk with a lawyer who handles birth injuries early, because the deadlines in California are strict and some are much shorter than families expect. The page adds verified information about those deadlines below. Many firms, including ours, offer a free first conversation, and lawyers in this field usually work on a contingency basis, which means no fee is charged unless there is a recovery.

Fifth, ask what you can learn without deciding on a lawsuit. A records review and expert opinion can help you decide with facts instead of fear. Finally, remember that you may qualify for support whatever happens with a claim, as explained in the next section.

Support while the case is reviewed: therapy, Early Start and Medi-Cal

Waiting for a legal answer should never delay care. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and specialist visits can help a child from the earliest weeks. Babies and toddlers up to age 3 who have, or are at risk of, a developmental delay may be eligible for Early Start, California's early intervention program, which is delivered through regional centers. Your child's pediatrician or the NICU social worker can also help with referrals.

Depending on your child's needs and your family's income, programs such as Medi-Cal and California Children's Services (CCS) may help pay for specialized care, equipment and therapy. Eligibility rules change, so ask the hospital social worker or your health plan which programs apply to you. We cannot promise any result from a claim, but we can help you understand the choices in front of you. Support for you matters too: caring for a child with a serious injury is exhausting, and asking for help is a strength.

Kaiser members: arbitration instead of a jury

Kaiser Permanente works differently from most hospitals. Kaiser’s own member materials explain that members agree to binding arbitration instead of a jury or court trial for certain matters, that a member who believes their care was negligent can ask for binding arbitration, and that the arbitrator’s decision is binding on both the member and Kaiser Permanente. These arbitrations are run by a neutral Office of the Independent Administrator (oia-kaiserarb.com), not by Kaiser. For a family who delivered at a Kaiser hospital as Kaiser members, that usually means a birth-injury claim is decided by an arbitrator rather than a jury — and the claim still has to be started on time, so it is important not to wait.

Deadlines for a birth-injury claim in California

California gives a child’s birth-injury case its own deadline. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 340.5, a minor must sue within three years of the wrongful act, but a child who was under six when it happened has until his or her eighth birthday if that is longer. For a baby hurt during labor or delivery, that usually means the eighth birthday. The clock runs from the act itself, not from the day the family learned what went wrong, and it is paused only in narrow cases of fraud or collusion. Parents’ own claims, and claims against a public hospital, can have much shorter deadlines, so it is safer to get advice early.

California’s MICRA law limits one part of a medical malpractice recovery. Under Civil Code § 3333.2, as amended by AB 35, non-economic damages (pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life) are capped. In 2026 the cap is $470,000 for injury and $650,000 for wrongful death, and it rises every January 1 ($40,000 and $50,000 a year until 2033, then 2% a year). Separate caps can apply to doctors, hospitals and unaffiliated providers. Economic damages are not capped: lifetime medical care, therapy, equipment, home modifications and lost earning capacity can be recovered in full, and in a birth-injury case they are usually the largest part of the claim.

How to get the delivery records from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center

California law gives families a right to these records. Under Health and Safety Code § 123110, a patient or the patient’s personal representative — for a baby, a parent or guardian (§ 123105) — may inspect the records within five working days of a written request and is entitled to a paper or electronic copy, which the provider must send within 15 days after receiving a request that says which records are wanted. For a birth-injury review, ask for both charts: the mother’s labor and delivery record, including the fetal heart rate monitoring strips, and the baby’s newborn and NICU record.

To get the records from this hospital, start with Kaiser Permanente's Release of Information (ROI) department. The hospital's website explains how to request records, forms and certifications on its Medical Forms, Records and Certifications page, and says that the phone numbers and email addresses of local ROI offices are listed at kp.org/requestrecords. Members can also ask through their online account. Ask for the mother's complete labor and delivery chart, the baby's newborn nursery and NICU chart, and the fetal heart monitoring strips, and keep a copy of your request and the date you sent it. A parent can request a baby's records.

The hospital’s medical records page →

Where a case from Woodland Hills would be filed

A birth-injury lawsuit in Los Angeles County that is filed in court is usually brought in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, which hears unlimited civil cases in departments at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. For families who delivered at Kaiser Permanente as members, however, the claim usually goes to binding arbitration instead of court, as explained above. Either way, the claim has to be started on time.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles – Stanley Mosk Courthouse → — 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Help for your child now: Early Start in Los Angeles County

Early Start is California's early intervention program for babies and toddlers under 3 who have a developmental delay or are at risk of one. According to its website, the North Los Angeles County Regional Center (NLACRC) serves the San Fernando Valley; confirm that it is your center with the lookup tool at dds.ca.gov. To ask for an evaluation, a parent can apply online at nlacrc.org or send the Early Start application to earlystartintake@nlacrc.org, or call the main office at 818-778-1900. The regional center says eligibility can take up to 45 days. No doctor's referral is needed.

North Los Angeles County Regional Center (NLACRC) →

Key facts

Questions parents ask

Other Los Angeles County hospitals we cover

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center · Miller Children’s & Women’s Long Beach · Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center · Kaiser Permanente Downey · Antelope Valley Medical Center · Adventist Health White Memorial · Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park · Queen of the Valley Hospital, West Covina · CHA Hollywood Presbyterian · Huntington Hospital, Pasadena · Los Angeles birth injury lawyers →

Related pages

Cerebral Palsy · Erb’s Palsy / Brachial Plexus Injury · HIE / Oxygen Deprivation at Birth · Statute of Limitations · MICRA Damages Cap · All California hospitals · California birth injury lawyers · Birth injury guides

Beverly Law is an independent law firm. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or speaking for Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center or Kaiser Permanente (Kaiser Foundation Hospitals). Hospital facts on this page come from the public sources listed above.

Important: This page is general information about birth injuries and California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Beverly Law. Every case is different — talk to a lawyer about your own situation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. No fees or costs unless we win. Last reviewed: 2026-09-18.