Wow, where are you, gottaknit? Not in the US? Or are there states that don't enforce it? I'm in NY and it's MANDATORY if you're in a hospital. Nice, huh? That's actually part of the reason we decided to homebirth - mandatory antibiotic ointment in the eyes, and mandatory K shot.
After reading a lot of articles (& still want to read more) we decided we did not want to do the shot - in fact, our midwife is totally against the shot. Though she says if we want to go oral, fine with her. We'd decided that I'd just up my intake of Vitamin-K-rich herbal infusions in the last month to build up the supply in my/baby's blood (Susun Weed in Herbal for the Childbearing Year has some great suggestions) so that I wouldn't at all fret about missing the shot. BUT our issue now is, we realized that if for any reason we do need a hospital transfer - which of course I'm assuming & hoping we don't! - our baby would get the Vit K shot, because we couldn't refuse it here in NY (you get reported to CPS etc etc). So I have concerns about loading up my baby with an incredibly high dose shot of Vit K if his/her blood is already rich with the natural stuff.
Anyway, that's slightly OT. It's great to hear other mamas weigh in on the Vitamin K question - it's a kind of tricky issue. One midwife I met said she did know of one mama whose baby had a problem - so she herself (the midwife) elected to give her baby the shot at her own homebirth. You'll find stories on either end...
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