Talk to me about maternal Vit K supplementation after birth

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I'm birthing at a birthing center and i am declining vit k injection for baby along with oral vit k. The midwife suggests that i do some more research on this because she has seen a incident at another birthing center she worked at prior. However my last birth was a homebirth and we didnt even think twice about skipping it. However...i feel i need to do more reserach on this and what i've come up with is maternal supplementation of 1-2.5 mg vit k per day for 10 weeks. However when i search online to buy this amount...it's being offered in much higher doages. I'm a bit confused so I need to supplement myself after birth or not?

[PunkElmo]

I'd skip it -

The research I've done suggests it's completely unnecessary for 9,999/10,0000 births, and there's actually a higher risk of liver complications from GETTING the vitamin K than newborn hemorrhage from NOT getting the shot... but hey, that's just the research I did, and I'm not a doctor or medical professional ;)

I, unfortunately, do not have the legal option of refusing vitamin K or antibiotic eye drops (both of which I would refuse) because I'm in NY state - a physician does not even have to get my consent to perform these procedures on my newborn...  If I refuse, CPS can take my child away...  There are legal statutes such as 42 USC §1983 and a few other loopholes, but... yeah, very difficult to refuse/opt out, and it's, quite frankly, very scary that they can put these things in/on your child without your permission

Thank goodness for homebirths, and, even though the midwife is required by law to do these things, I know she'll let me know all my options and help to make sure I'm as informed as possible about everything that's going on.... le sigh.

[Marissamom]

I'm just trying to make sure I'm eating foods rich in vitamin K, both right now, and after the birth. and I said I would give it to my baby if there was any indication. 

[doula divas]

I had a birth center birth with my third child and had made the decision proir to his birth to not use the Vit. K shot.  After my son was born he was having a hard time keeping his tempurture stable.  At my midwifes suggestion we decided to give him the shot after all.  At about 24 hrs old he began having seizures and when we arrived at the hospital they gave him a c-scan.  They saw some bleeding on his brain.  Because I had opted to give him the shot they felt confident that it would resolve itself and no further intervention was needed. come to find out that that was not what was wrong, but having the shot eliminated the need for another intervention during a time when he was having so many.  I was glad that we had decided to use it.  Maybe having it on stand by is an option?

[mwherbs]

The reason that vit K became manditory in New York state was because some nurses who where seeing far too many cases of vitamin k related bleeds did some retrospective research basically in the hospital populations at the time the hospitals where either making mistakes or cutting corners and not giving the shots- the rate of vitamin K related bleeds was about 1-2 per 1000 in the babies who did not receive any vit K.
Now that is not a stand alone stat, is we look at the UK info in the 80's we see a similar stat but far more specific, in the population of breast fed infants , risk factors treated, there was a change from supplemental feeding during a 5 day hospital stay to exclusive breastfeeding the rate was 1/1000, 2 years earlier the rate was 1/20,000, ( McNinch) Supplemental feeding was probably a stand in for oral vit K supplementation, as this was the earliest treatment discovered in the late 1800's for hemorrhagic disease of the newborn before vit K was discovered.(Townsend) Classic vit K bleeds are related to supply issues as well, Von kreis showed classic first week hemorrhage cumulative feeding less than 16 oz in the first 4 days.
Greer is the US ped who has done maternal diet and supplementation studies, he had to re- evaluate maternal dietary amounts as the USDA put out better calculations on dietary content, in his research and others the average woman of chidbearing age in America get about 50 micrograms of vitamin K a day instead of the recommended 90 micrograms a day. What Greer did see is that the more maternal intake the more vit K in breastmilk.
What is concerning about the info is the recent studies in Thailand show that the babies at high risk for vitamin K related bleeds are babies born and breastfed by moms who get less than 90 micrograms of vit K a day and at HIGHEST risk were the babies born to moms who get 50 micrograms or less a day. (Shearer)
Other issues of risk are metaboic disorders, trauma,bruising, resuscitation and things like cholestasis.

The issue of vit K as far as life time health is far bigger than just looking at initial supplementation of neonates. It is related to bone and artery health at dietary intakes at about 250-300 micrograms a day , vit K 1foods tend to be antinflammatory and also have impacts on insluin sensitivity .
Tufts University( Sarah Booth and others ) in the US is doing much of the studies on vitamin K and aging in the US, in Japan they are also doing studies lots of studies on vit K and aging. You find measures of bone mineral density in young women and girls in the Neathlands and Ireland.
Edited by mwherbs - 3/15/11 at 1:35am