Sure this has been done but.....Vitamin K injection help needed

[Spice17]

Hi all

Had 36 week MW appt today (bloody rubbish but that's a whole other thread)

Anyway, along with forgetting to turn the doppler on (so for 1 VERY scary minute she was prodding around and getting no heartbeat until she realised) she briefly mentioned the vitamin K injection, waved at the relevent page in my maternity book and said I should state my preference.

Now as she didn't bother explaining, I don't really know what she meant. I do recall reading SOMETHING about this - on the amazing MN of course but I'm not clear what the issue/concern is - can anyone help?

TIA :)

There was a big thread on vit k recently, worth a search.
Basically reduces risk of bleeding in a newborn, particularly into the brain. Lots of positives and very few negatives.
Our hospital uses drops rather than injection but either way I think it's pretty dreadful not to give it, but that's just my opinion.

AFAIK there aren't really any risks/concerns with having it unless you are anti ALL injections and western medicine, which is why they still ask. But there are fatal risks with not having it, although slimish I understand???

Thanks both :)

In a healthy full term newborn with a straightforward birth the injection carries a slightly higher risk than the potential risk of brain bleed.

In an ill, preterm or otherwise compromised infant the risk of brain bleed is slightly higher and the vit k injection is the safest option.

The risks of either brain bleed or leukaemia are minute though so it's up to you really. Over here the vit k is heavily pushed but I refused it for all three of mine (and got abuse from docs for it), when ds2 was admitted to SCBU I asked for it though and he was given a half dose.

The biggest problem is the dose they give is much higher than necessary and there are studies showing a slight increase in leukaemia in children who've had it. The risk is minimal however, as is the risk of brain bleed in healthy infants so it's a bit six of one, half dozen of the other tbh

The decision is not whether you want vit K or not - there doesn't seem to be any real downside to having it in some form.

The decision is really whether to have an injection or to have it orally. Some mothers don't want their newborn to have injections if it can be avoided, so they prefer the oral drops. Also there was one 90s study - now discredited I believe - that linked the injection to leukaemia, so for some people that was another reason to go for the drops. On the other hand there is a little bit of evidence that the drops are less effective, and they have to be done several times I think whereas the jab is just once.

It helps protect against some of the risks caused by our intervention-happy birthing culture. If you have a calm, gentle birth it is not necessary.

I would say downside is I don't like getting jabs & I don't like watching my child get them, either.

I chose jab last time because it was quick & much easier than drops.

Colostrum is vit k rich. This is enough if you feed soon after the birth and on demand. Again, any need for vit k is down to the way mothers and babies are processed in the early days.

The downsides to the oral drops is there is no evidence whether the body can process and can interefere with the virgin gut.

Starlight you took the words out of my mouth

Eeek, I have first hand experience of Leukaemia as my brother had it at 16, so that's scared me a little.

Also, still not that clear what the intended purpose is, sorry? Is it to stop possible brain bleeds? I do have terrible baby brain at the moment - doh!

If I had a forceps delivery or prolonged 2nd stage I may have opted for it.

I'm suspicious of the claim that all babies are born with low levels of vit k. The level of vit k that babies are born with is NORMAL, surely, developed to be optimal from years of evolution. If current nature interfering practices increase chances of brain bleed then ffs change those practices, don't stuff our babies with compensating chemicals.

Neither of my boys, both born by section have had vitamin K (drops or injection). When I had my first there was a scare about leukemia being associated with the injection. I did not do it on the basis of that, I did not really look into it, it was just a gut reaction. The second time I did masses of esearch and decided not to do vit at all. (flame me now). I got alot of pressure in hospital, they gave me a sheet about vit K which actually stated that there was a possible link to leukemia with the vaccination, but it had not been proven.

If I was going to go for it i would go for the oral drops.

Vitamin K helps with blood clotting, it helps prevent a disease called haemorrhagic disease of the newborn (or that's what it used to be called, I think it has a fancy new name now) it doesn't affect many babies, only 1 in 10000 but for those babies it does affect it can be fatal, we have no way of predicting which babies will be affected.

We don't know how much vitamin K babies are born with but I figure mother nature normally does a pretty good job of ensuring we've got what we need.

I worried having a CS as the gut flora is formed by a combo of stuff aquired coming down the birth canal and colostrum/breast milk.

I often wonder at babies who a fed formula from the off with no colostrum at all, how thier gut flora gets going properly.

Some woman swab their nethers and rub it in newborns face!

Okay...er no. lol.

Starlight Woah there!

LOL - sorry. There is some research to support the benefits of this, - somewhere........

Haha! I'm sure there is! But er... (although couldn't you just have a bath with your newborn and confer the same bacteriological benefits?)

Nice clear explanation of reasons for/against vitamin K here : www.nct.org.uk/parenting/vitamin-k

Both my DCs had it orally if I remember rightly but both were very premature. Am expecting DC3, not sure what decision I would come to if I make it to full term but chances are I'm going to pop early again so it's on my list of things to think about if and when I get past about 35 weeks.....

There are known risk factors, but hard ones for individuals to control.

When I didn't have oral Vit K at a homebirth (pharmacist error!), the MW said she wasn't too worried, baby was at low risk because the birth had been very straightforward. I think she meant birth without forceps/ventouse or excessive time pushing (ie, nothing happened that overly squeezed the skull). That was 11 years ago, though, risk factors may be understood differently, now.

Something online confirming what MW said to me.

2 of my newborns never had Vit K, they had good doses of colostrum & by the time I could procure some oral Vit K there didn't seem any point. But I chose injection last time, anyway, just seemed simple decision to make.