What did/will you do regarding vitamin K at birth?

[littlec]

DD1 got the shot. I had only done minimal research at that point. This time I'm going to give the oral vitamin K purchased at precious arrows or birth with love. I thought I'd give the dosage according to the website (1 drop at birth, 1 at a week, and 1 at a month), but I've read things here and there about giving more than that.

Just curious as to what others are doing.

[laughymama]

I'm curious too.

[Amila]

We skipped this with both of ours, and plan to do so with the next one as well. If I DID do it, I would never give the shot, only the oral, but in my opinion, babies aren't born deficient in anything that they need to survive

[sere234]

Glad you asked this!! I read that if the mom takes vitamin K, the baby should be covered? I was just going to start the vitamin as I got closer to birth.... Need to talk to my midwife about this!!!

[Funny Face]

We don't do it unless there is heavy bruising or a trauma at the birth.

With dd we did the shot because we were at the hospital and that's all they had. I think I would do the shot again (in the instances listed above) as the elevated levels would be needed immediately to make any difference for clotting after trauma.

That's just my take on it though.

[sanguine_speed]

[Sarah W]

We didn't do Vit K with our first and won't do it unless there is obvious trauma or bruising. We didn't do the oral, either.

[IAMommy]

We didn't do it with DS, and won't do it this time either unless indicated by bruising/trauma.

[bjorker]

Originally Posted by Funny Face

We don't do it unless there is heavy bruising or a trauma at the birth.

That's what I'm planning on, as well. I asked one of my midwives about the oral vit K and she said they don't keep it on-hand because it goes bad too quickly. She also says it's inexpensive and that I can order it through them if I want to, but since I don't have a plan to actually use it, we might end up just doing the shot if needed. There's no preservatives in it, is there? I was planning on checking on that before I made the decision for sure.

EDIT: Ugh, now I don't know...
http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/...vitamin-k.html
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/vitktop.html - lots more links in this one.

[mclisa]

We did the vitamin K with all of ours.

[Amanda_Reyasmom]

DD came out with a lot of bruising on her forhead, so I opted to do it.

[cagirlintexas]

We skipped it, I really didn't see a point. maybe if the birth had been particularly tramatic but it wasn't.

[etsdtm99]

we decided with our last birth (with the first, i didn't even know about it until they were giving DD the shot ) only to do it if there was bruising/trauma - and the back/top of DS's head was one big black/purple bruise for his first few days of life so he got the shot.. i would like to do that again, give the shot if there is obvious bruising .. but i haven't talked to my midwife about it yet..

[dkenagy]

I did the shot with my first two; the first because it was something I didn't even know about (and wasn't even told it was done; I saw it on the video months later!), the second was because I was concerned about her maybe "needing" it, not much research had been done, TBH. With my third, I asked for the oral at the hospital. The day after she was born, the pharmacy called my room and said they didn't have oral, had never even heard of it, and wondered if the IV solution would work?? Are you kidding me???! We skipped it then. My fourth was born over a month early and spent a week in NICU, and we didn't get any flac for refusing vit K altogether.
This time, I've already told my docs we're refusing it (and the eye salve) and I'm ready to sign the required waivers...

[ann_of_loxley]

No vitamin K - unless the birth turns out violent (which it will only do in an emergency situation...and in which case - oral vitamin K after at least one feed only).

[Mom2Ian]

With my son, I didn't want it, but forgot to inform them and was too out of it after 36 hours of labor to speak up in enough time when I realized they were giving him the shot. Like some others have said, I was going to have it done only in the instance of bruising, but there was none.

[rootzdawta]

Moved from I'm Pregnant to Birth and Beyond.

[emmalizz]

[AlexisT]

I do the shot. A traumatic birth is not the only way a baby can have a bleed.
(added the pronoun back in, so it doesn't look like a command )

[texasfarmom]

I have done research on this and talked to my doula about it. We are declining the shot. We were told on our hospital tour that we would have to have our pediatrician sign a waiver saying this was ok. Well, I tried calling several peds and none of them will talk to me before the birth! Our doula reassured us that we can sign a waiver and we don't need a ped's permission to decline it.

We were also told on the tour that they (the nursery) does not need our permission to give the Vit K or the eye ointment! WHAT!? That kinda makes me uneasy!