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Natural Birth
sunkissed7804
member
XP: Are you doing vitamin K, Hep B, and/or eye drops at birth?
sunkissed7804
member
What about any other medical interventions offered?
Why or why not? Any non-biased, research sources greatly appreciated!
Thanks!This discussion has been closed.
Re: XP: Are you doing vitamin K, Hep B, and/or eye drops at birth?
Vitamin K - yes, as I think the benefits outweigh the risks. I've never seen any reputable sources that could give me any serious risks, whereas the risk of a major internal bleed is pretty terrifying.
Hep B - no, it's given in elementary school here, and I follow the standard schedule
Eye Drops - yes, but delayed for an hour or so to allow cuddles and breastfeeding first.
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I did Vit K for the same reason as PP mentioned. DD had a rather rough delivery, but ended up fine (I was the one who ended up with internal bleeding!).
We did Hep B because I didn't see a reason not to (DH used to work in vaccine research, though, so we're quite pro-vaccine). If it wasn't offered, I would have been fine waiting as well.
We did not do eye drops because the only reason they are given is to prevent infections that could happen if the mom has chlamydia or gonorrhea. Those infections can be asymptomatic in women, but I was tested for them and knew I didn't have them.
Vit K: Yes, it's just a vitamin. May not be needed, but if you're in a situation where it is needed you may not find out until too late. (Vitamin K helps with blood clotting.)
Eye drops: Yes.
Hep B: No. It's not necessary unless the mother is HepB+ or the baby will immediately be in a situation where they are in close contact with someone who is HepB+ and may have bodily fluids transmitted. HepB is transmitted by bodily fluids, babies aren't having sex or sharing needles. We skipped the birth dose, then followed the regular CDC schedule from there on out. The birth dose is just an extra dose. The baby usually gets a combo shot called Pediarix at at 2, 4, & 6 months, which is HepB, DTaP, and Polio vaccines. They still end up "fully vaccinated" for HepB at the same time because of the time required in between HepB doses.
This was us too. We were having DS circumsized so the vitamin K was especially necessary. We waited until his 2 mo appt to get the first Hep B with the other vaccines given then, just so he wouldn't be too far off schedule on it. All newborn procedures, including his first bath, were delayed for like 90 min while we got to admire him and breastfeed and get cleaned up and otherwise hang out in the delivery room until they were ready to move us to our postpartum room. The timing seemed to just work with how the hospital usually does things. My completely non-scientific feeling on the eye drops is that I wouldn't want to put my finger in my vagina and then rub my eyes so I wanted him to get it even though I don't have the specific diseases it's supposed to be protecting against.
DS, May 2011
Vitamin K: Yes, too important to skip IMO. Plus both my babies were pretty bruised up from delivery, so that made it even more important.
Eye Drops: Yes, I knew they didn't need them but it just wasn't a battle worth fighting. I used the eye medication once for an eye infection. It doesn't hurt, but will blur your vision briefly.
Hep B: No, we delay it until BFing is well-established. So for both my kids that was at their two week appointment.
First Bath: Yes, for DD we had just never thought to decline it. No, for DS. There do seem to be benefits to not doing a first bath. Plus I remember DD screaming her head off and I just didn't want DS to have to do something that was unnecessary.
Hearing Test: Yes, not sure why someone would decline that.
Lurker here.... I am undecided on the Vit K shot, I agree that a major internal bleed is pretty terrifying, but I did find this source. Note the huge warning label at the top. Sorry I can't make it clicky.
https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=51404
With my first, I did Vit K and eye ointment b/c it didn't seem worth the argument to decline it (hospital birth). The MW was completely supportive of my decision to delay Hep B, so we did that.
With my second, I had a MW I trusted delivering my baby at home so I asked her to have Vit K on hand to give if she thought it was necessary. She did not. We also knew eye ointment was unnecessary and she agreed and was supportive of that. He had his first Hep B shot at his 2 month appt a few days ago.
This is what we did. We got the Hep B shot at our pedi office.
Eye drops: no.
Hep B: not offered to newborns here in Canada.
Vitamin K: Yes. It's a vitamin and I've seen first-hand the terrible effects of a brain bleed in an infant from not having it, so it was important to me.
Hep B: No. The only reason they do it at birth (for a mom with no risk, obviously) is because population-wide it's when physicians have the highest chance of actually being able to do it because of lack of follow up health care for a lot of children. I plan to do her series before she starts school.
Eye ointment: No. I don't know how I feel about this now. I don't regret not giving it to DD, but our fill-in pediatrician did prescribe a week of antibiotics at LO's 2 week check up because she had a ton of crust in her eyes. I think it was a blocked tearduct, but it wasn't clearing up even with a ton of BM application. Once I started the ointment it went away completely. So, I don't know if having the one initial dose would have prevented DD from the longer-term doses. My pedi did mention that studies are showing the erythromycin to be less and less effective, so I'm not sure what we'll decide next time.
Bath: I let the nurse take her and give her a bath because she was gross. Seriously, dried poo and gunk all in her hair. I wasn't as concerned about it, but DH was really wanting her to have a bath, so I didn't fight it. I did ask them to use my own shampoo/body wash though because I wanted her to have something natural and fragrance free, where our hospital uses J&J.
Delayed Cord Clamping: We decided to delay and my MW gave us no qualms about it (it's their standard practice I think). My nurse was also able to get enough blood after the cord had stopped pulsing in order for me to donate it.
IMO, vitamin K is really worth doing. There aren't really any risks and it has saved the lives of babies who otherwise could have died. Especially if you have a long labor and or baby comes out bruised at all, I would absolutely do the vitamin k.
Vitamin K - With dd I did get it, because my birth was augmented with pitocin and was long and hard for both of us. This time, I'm having a home birth, and it will depend on how the birth goes. If everything goes smoothly and there is no indication for such, I will skip it. Colostrum has high enough levels of vitamin k to benefit a newborn in a non-traumatic birth.
Eye drops - No. I have been tested many times, am in a monogamous relationship, and unless some kind of infection pops up late in pregnancy, I will decline this. There's just no reason for it. They gave it to dd because I birthed in a hospital and they didn't give me a chance to refuse it, and she screamed until I wiped it off. I know it's not supposed to hurt, but it was clearly uncomfortable, and I won't do that to this one.
Hep B - I declined this until her two month appointment. No one we are around has it, so I just couldn't find anything justifying giving it at birth versus two months. We have stayed on schedule since then, though.
Vitamin K: Oral drops. No shot unless there's some sort of birth trauma. In my research I was concerned about the toxicity of the dosage the vaccine has of the synthetic vitamin K and the amount of time it takes for the baby's liver to start fully functioning.
Hep B: Like it was stated previously, Hep B isn't offered to newborns in Canada so I'll be doing that at 2 months.Eye drops: Nope. No real reason plus I don't want to blind my baby's already limited eye sight as soon as it's born!
We are having baby #2 in Mexico, so I don't know if they do any of these procedures.
With my son, we got the Vitamin K because I had a 30+ hour labor. We declined the eye drops and Hep B because there was no medical reason for it in our family.
I am taking high doses of alfalfa during this pregnancy, so even if Vitamin K is not standard in Mexico, I feel OK about it. And, we leave our children intact.
We will only do Vit K. We declined it with our second, but wish we hadn't. Thankfully it wasn't serious but it could have avoided worry for a couple of weeks until we did have it given to her.
Eye drops - I don't have STDs, so there is no need.
Hep B - my baby isn't at risk to contract hep B, so there is no need
circumcision - we don't circumcise our sons