Midwives--what's your Vit. K stance

I give clients the state's handout on Vit K, as well as a write up I did about it. I think it's important for people to know the true risk of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn (or Vitamin K deficiency bleeding), but it's very, very rare.

I don't usually give my personal opinion to clients. When they ask, "What would you do?" I tell them that it's irrelevant because it's not my baby and it's easier for me to be in a different place when giving my advice.

For me, there's some reason why babies are born without it. However, I don't think nature ever expected babies to have alot of trauma at birth - forceps, vacuum extractors, etc. For a baby that has a lot of bruising, I tell clients that a mainstream provider would highly recommend it. Still, I don't suggest they do anything.

I'm comfortable both ways.

Here's my write up on Vit K: http://www.midwifemama.com/newborn.html

I really liked that writeup you did, pam. That makes for a more unbiased case than the article i read. Thank you for the link.

I already am taking nettles in my raspberry leaf tea, so it's good to know I am already doing something to up my own supply of Vitamin K. I have alfalfa tablets I can also take.

I think I will probably decline the shot unless I feel there was significant trauma to the baby during the birth.

I'm not midwife but can say that sadly my friend lost her 7 week old to Vitamin K deficiency. He had internal bleeding. I guess his death was about 1 in a million being that he was past the first week when more deaths occur. My friend rewrote the consent form so that parents could make more informed decisions and had it approved by the local doctors and midwives.