To Vit K or not to Vit K

[mum2b1]

What are people's thoughts on whether or not to go ahead with the Vitamin K?
Do or dont and why?
Orally or injection and why?

Thanks

I had a really unstressful easy for dd homwbirth, so went for oral vit k which gp surg did prescription for. If I had had a traumatic birth I would have opted for injected vit K. It reduces the chance of a cerebral bleed after birth and other things. Do a bit of research online.

Both mine had it don't see any reason why they shouldn't have had it, given once by onjcetion instead of 3x by mouth or more if you have a sicky baby.

I didn't give any to DS. Don't see the point in it really as if all babies are born with low levels surely that means it's biologically normal?

If the birth is low trauma for the baby (no forceps) and the baby is full term and the baby gets plenty of colostrum (lots of Vit. K in colosrum), there should be no need for a supplement. So with 2 of mine, I didn't give them any Vit. K.

There was one study (and I emphasise the ONE, because one study means nothing), that suggested injected Vit. K might be risky. So one of my babies got oral Vit. K.

By the time I got to baby 4, the possible hazard of injected Vit. K hadn't been confirmed by further research, so I decided baby 4 could have injected K (even though he met all the low risk factors, brain bleeding seemed like an easy risk to not take).

Jab meant it was over & done with at birth, with oral you have to remember to give them another dose later (& that's easy to forget to do).

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Or in short, I'd get an injection if I were you! But good luck, whatever you do.

Babies have very low levels of Vit K. Colostrum contains enough to boost levels. The injection is a quick hit and it's thought it's needed to prevent brain haemorrage. Now here's my plan!
I've planned a calm. intervention free hypnobirth (due mid July) If all goes to plan, I would prefer my baby to feed ASAP and to have the Vit K drops. I have read a lot of literature and think I'm making an informed decision. I don't want my baby to be pricked in the heel within moments of coming into the world! If there's any complications, I won't object to the injection.
My midwife can't prescribe the drops so I called into my GP yesterday and she just called me back and was really vague, saying "we don't normally prescribe the drops..I'll have to talk to so and so and call you back"
It's my understanding that it's your choice, there is some evidence to suggest that there's been a slight decrease in brain related deaths since the routine introduction of Vit K, but I think the jury is still out and it's a bit of a case of the UK following the US on healthcare matters, which to me, is a little scary!!
Sorry for huge post but hope this helps!

It's a big molecule that doesn't X the placenta, terramum (I think that's right). Keeping big molecules out otherwise a good function by placenta. It's plentiful in colustrum, though, unless mother is malnourished, so normally colustrum would sort the matter out.

Forgot to mention that AIMS do a very good booklet which covers all the pro & cpon arguements...well worth reading.

i know a woman on another site who had a traumatic delivery of twins and who thinks that one twin had 2xvitk and one had none. (her sister and mother who were in the room think this is what they saw, the woman herself was out of it after the labour).

the twin with none ended off with a bleed on the brain and the parents were accused of abuse. both children were removed from the home for a year while it was investigated (and of course one baby was terribly ill, but the mother was restricted on visits).

anyway, it was utterly heartbreaking and awful and the vitk thing was implicated in their testimony, as senior docs said that the lack of it could have been involved.

one of those things... i'll never know what happened, only they do. but my absolute gut instinct is that the woman (and by extension her dh) would never have harmed a hair on their heads. (you know how you get to know people online... she posted a lot prior to the births etc).

so... when it came to the vitK inj i was only too happy to witness dd having it.

I looked into this before dd was born. I read research that implied having a high dose of vit k when born may increase risk of leukaemia. However the stats showed the risk of this was smaller than the risk of cerebral bleed if vit k isn't administered.

So on balance I decided to go for vit k. Also, dd's head was stuck for a while (second stage labour took over nearly three hours) and she came out with a cone head even though ventouse weren't used.

hmm interesting..im tinkin about this too...

rather confused.

Both of mine had Vit K injections, but that was becausem my sister has a clotting problem.

Gosh, I never even thought about it, and when they delivered him and asked me if I wanted it, they might of well have asked me if I wanted my head cut off, I was so out of it, didn't even know what they were talking about!
See the logic in that if every baby is bornwith low levels then it must be biologically normal, but why not boost it if you can? Like when I get really tired, I take iron tablets. Don't have to, but might as well KWIM?

DS had Vit K injection, he was born at home. I was happy for him to have it as I felt the benefits outweighed the risks, and I did read up on it beforehand. I held him, the mw jabbed him, he yelled, I cuddled him and then it was over.

I didn't know that about the Vit K in colostrum. I did attempt to feed DS immediately after delivery but it took a while for him to get the hang of latching on (couple of days) so wouldn't want to rely on this myself.

Due DC2 in December and will opt for the jab again.

I am thinking about dc2 having it orally
I wanted this for ds but the birth was so difficult and everything else on my 'plan' went out of the window that I just went along with the injection for him

it just doesn't seem ideal to be sticking needles in them immediately after birth if it isn't essential

how do you arrange to get it done orally? do the hospitals tend to be obliging?

Both of mine had it orally
It was not an issue, MW provided us with the stuff at the hospital
Possibly had to visit GP for 2nd dose but can't remember now

I would have been happy to skip it but DH disagreed
I would have considered having the injection if they'd had an instrumental delivery