Will your baby get the Vitamin K shot after birth?

Question

Would love to hear what some of you think about this! I'm definitely struggling on the decision (at least the part that I can evaluate now). Thanks!

Answer

Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn is rare, but it can be devastating. Not worth that real risk for the imagined risk from the injection.

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Even though the risk of bleeding out is rare, it's still a risk & a risk I don't want to take with my child. Vitamin K is needed to help blood clot appropriately and babies can have bleeds that we can't actually see, for example a brain bleed. I don't really get reasons for why someone would say no to Vitamin K and I'm sure no matter how many explanations I get I still won't understand why anyone would take that risk.

Answer

They have low vitamin k for the first 8 days after birth FOR A REASON. God/nature did not make a mistake! The blood cannot be too thick because the stem cells from the umbilical cord must move freely around the baby's body after birth. Vitamin k naturally gets to normal levels after 8 days approximately. The risk of hemorrhaging is so low it's not worth the shot. And it's not "just" a vitamin shot. There's other crap in there too like polysorbate 80 :(

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I am hoping that drinking nettle tea a lot--high in vitamin k--will work for my own clotting. As for baby, I trust the midwives at my birth center. They are very experienced.

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http://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-for-the-vitamin-k-shot-in-newborns/

^^cites studies which suggests that Vitamin K from the mother does not transfer well to the baby. Even mothers that were given Vit K1 through an IV before birth had babies with only an extremely small increase in Vit K. They also comment on how there isn't enough bacteria in a newborns gut to produce K2.

Like I said before, I am avoiding several "common" interventions, but I just can't justify avoiding this one. If you do, please base it off of actual studies (plenty exist on this topic, thankfully!) and not out of fear of medicine or word of mouth.

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I didn't know this was an option. I thought they automatically gave every child an oral dose of vitamin K.

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No, hubs and I have ABO incompatibility and Vit K makes it very difficult for baby to break down my O+ blood. Husband has AB- and so far both our kids have A+. 
First baby had Vit K shot, had jaundice and severely high bilirubin. It got so high there was concern about brain damage.

Our pedi was the one to suggest opting out. We did so with our second and her jaundice was mild and she was able to process out my blood much faster.

We will be opting out again with this one for the same reasons. Our pedi works at the hospital as well, she isn't exactly an advocate for the Vit k shot.

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My doula has reassured me many times that by doubling my vitamin K intake from weeks 36-40, that the baby will have plenty of Vitamin K and the injection won't be necessary. That's my plan.

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I am pretty middle of the road - trying to minimize interventions but not anti-modern medicine. This is one I am definitely getting - the chances may be small but the effects are just too devastating for me to take that risk.

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We have done injections with our first 2 babies. In debating whether or not to do oral this time. I've read oral doesn't absorb well so I'll prob do the injection. I would never forgive myself if something happened that could have been avoided with the injection