question for those who used religious exemptions to avoid newborn screening - Page 2

[lach]

Check with your hospital, but also try to find some people who gave birth at your hospital and ask them the real deal. For the Hep B, the K, and the eye stuff I had to sign off on all three individually on my pre-registration form. I wrote "no" next to the ones I didn't want, and that was pretty much that.

But I'm not sure I'd totally take the hospital's word... it seems like the kind of thing where they want you to get these things so they might tell you ahead of time that you must. So I'd ask around and see what other people experienced.

I also wouldn't skip the screen. Maybe it depends on the state, but here they screen for something like 40 different things, and then you can opt for a second screen of another 40 or so different things. They're mostly pretty rare things, but I didn't see any downside whatsoever in doing them. The hearing test is an important thing, too. My son scored fine on the newborn hearing test, but suffered so many ear infections that he had lost some hearing by the time he was 18mo. We don't know when exactly this happened, but we were lucky to have caught it by 18mo: it's much more normal for hearing loss not to be caught until 2-3. The earlier you can start dealing with such issues, the better for everyone involved.

[EdnaMarie]

I want to get an exemption from vitamin k shot, eye ointment and the hep B shot. Those are part of the newborn screening tests that are required by my state.

No, those are not part of a screening. They are separate.

I would never skip the PKU, personally. They are all things that are degenerative (meaning the earlier you catch them, the more you can do), severe (can lead to permanent disability and/or death), and treatable. There is a reason they do it at that age, and not other tests.

I got tested for gonorrhea and all STDs in my last month of pregnancy to be sure I could skip the eye ointment.

[nia82]

Definitely check with the hospital and talk to people. WY technically says only religious exemption for eye ointment or vitamin K shots, yet I know plenty people who just said no at the local hospital with no further issues... I had DS in CA and there it was not a biggy... Ask the hospital how they work, e.g. as the hospital in CA didn't do the HepB shot, it was the ped on call who would want to do it. The nurses didn't do it for sure. We had to throw one ped out basically, man they pester you like CRAZY about that stuff.
This time, we will have the baby at a freestanding birthing center in Colorado. We just signed a paper at the first prenatal that we don't want any of this (eye ointment, vitamin K - that's all they do). We of course don't do the HepB shot, not even at the newborn health check with our family practitioner. We will officially opt out of the CO newborn screening as we do it privately - we will pay $200 for it with a private lab which screens for 55 diseases and they will destroy the blood sample after the test is done, while all states keep a sample on hand until the child turns 18 and they can do with it what they want. We are not comfy with anyone having a DNA sample of our child, no way! So we will sign the forms for declining that test, and the FP takes the blood sample for the private lab on day 14, as many diseases cannot be found early on when they test in the hospitals, which is why they want to do it twice in a couple of states (CA didn't). As for the K, we do oral vitamin K, dutch protocol. We know we don't need the eye ointment, no STDs here, and actually if one of us cheated, which is the card they always play, we are honest enough to admit such a thing to each other if it happened because it would affect our baby's life. I truly do not see the point if mom lives in a monogamous, loving, honest relationship.

As for truly religious objections, I know a lot of Christians who do not believe in treatment of a healthy body - like injecting vitamin K which carries risks, yet the baby is healthy and only might develop a bleeding. They are cool at the same time with oral vitamin K as it carries no risk. The eye ointment is yet another treatment without disease, hence the objection.

[babyjelly]

I believe the heel stick is done twice because they don't trust us to be responsible parents (same as everything else that's standard, right?). The first test is highly unreliable, but at least it's getting done, or so the thinking goes. It isn't a pleasant test for the baby, so I do it when it's more reliable, and only once.
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[St. Margaret]

Yeah, the PKU was done last time before DD was 24 hours old, no way my milk was in yet (and baby should be nursing milk for it to be valid, so they normally say like 3 days). And then they DIDN'T do it at the peds. They said we'd have to get an order written up and go to the hospital to get it done later. SIGH.

This time my midwife will do it at the proper time, at home. It's not even that expensive (we pay the midwife out of pocket).

[BRmama]

Thank you everyone for the responses and the sites with information.

No, those are not part of a screening. They are separate.

Yeah just found that out. But I think the pku is the only one included with the screening test. At least according to this site: http://www.vaclib.org/exempt/utah.htm

I got tested for gonorrhea and all STDs in my last month of pregnancy to be sure I could skip the eye ointment.

That's a good plan. I'll be talking to my ob on my next appointment so I can get tested for all those too (not that I have any) my issue is let's say that I don't have any but then come labor and they have to put the ointment on the baby because it's the law and I didn't sign anything refusing it yk? That's one of the reasons we'll be doing a very specific birth plan.

Definitely check with the hospital and talk to people. WY technically says only religious exemption for eye ointment or vitamin K shots, yet I know plenty people who just said no at the local hospital with no further issues... I had DS in CA and there it was not a biggy... Ask the hospital how they work, e.g. as the hospital in CA didn't do the HepB shot, it was the ped on call who would want to do it. The nurses didn't do it for sure. We had to throw one ped out basically, man they pester you like CRAZY about that stuff.

That's technically how it is here for the vit. k but since xposting on my tribe I got responses from mamas that delivered there and mamas that are going to deliver there and they said that you can say no to all of those things. The only one they make a big deal about is the pku being done (as far as if you want to do it privately) if you're doing it outside of the hospital.

We will officially opt out of the CO newborn screening as we do it privately - we will pay $200 for it with a private lab which screens for 55 diseases and they will destroy the blood sample after the test is done, while all states keep a sample on hand until the child turns 18 and they can do with it what they want. We are not comfy with anyone having a DNA sample of our child, no way!

Someone on my tribe referred me to a great private lab that tests for much more than my state does. I'm really considering going with them, especially now that you mentioned that they keep the blood sample to do whatever they want with it. I wouldn't want anyone having a sample of my baby's son either. So yeah I'll be calling the hospital for sure to see what we need to sign to do this privately and if we need to sign anything to refuse the eye ointment.

As for the K, we do oral vitamin K, dutch protocol. We know we don't need the eye ointment, no STDs here, and actually if one of us cheated, which is the card they always play, we are honest enough to admit such a thing to each other if it happened because it would affect our baby's life. I truly do not see the point if mom lives in a monogamous, loving, honest relationship.

I was wondering about the oral vit. K. Does your dr. or mw have to order it? Can you buy your own? We're thinking about going that route with the vit. k as well. Also about the STD's that's exactly the card that nurse from the health dept. played when I talked to her about it. Exactly the case here. If dh ever cheated on me he'd tell me because it would be affecting our baby's life.

Yeah, the PKU was done last time before DD was 24 hours old, no way my milk was in yet (and baby should be nursing milk for it to be valid, so they normally say like 3 days). And then they DIDN'T do it at the peds. They said we'd have to get an order written up and go to the hospital to get it done later. SIGH.

Exactly when they did it to my son on my last pregnancy. My milk wasn't even in yet but I had no idea that it's more helpful when the milk is in.


Again thank you everyone for posting. I feel more empowered knowing what I know now when I call the hospital. Thank you all again for your expertise and if you read this whole post I apologize for it being so long

[nia82]

You can buy vitamin K from birthwithlove.com, I got it there last time for DS. It is preservative free, plant based, taste and odorless. We did the protocol back then like Europeans do with Konakion (oral vitamin K made by Roche, which is standard back home), which is one drop three times over the first weeks of life. The dutch protocol seems a little better though (just gonna be hard to dose it lower, so we sort of will modify to our own schedule)... Our midwives actually have the oral vitamin K, but I need to buy it since we live 2 hours from the birthing center, so it would make no sense to drive down for the drops... It is about $30 for a bottle that would last for a bunch of newborns!

[BRmama]

You can buy vitamin K from birthwithlove.com, I got it there last time for DS. It is preservative free, plant based, taste and odorless. We did the protocol back then like Europeans do with Konakion (oral vitamin K made by Roche, which is standard back home), which is one drop three times over the first weeks of life. The dutch protocol seems a little better though (just gonna be hard to dose it lower, so we sort of will modify to our own schedule)... Our midwives actually have the oral vitamin K, but I need to buy it since we live 2 hours from the birthing center, so it would make no sense to drive down for the drops... It is about $30 for a bottle that would last for a bunch of newborns!

Great thanks for the info!