ABSTRACT
The term infant, if born in good condition with normal developmental potential, generally suffers little in the way of postnatal insults. Spontaneous stroke involving one of the major brain blood vessels, usually the middle cerebral artery, will cause extensive brain damage, but as it is spontaneous is of no medico-legal significance. Postnatal brain damage in the term infant is more commonly secondary to oxygen starvation, either from lung damage or from inadequate circulation, rather than from intra-cranial events.
