Do Babies really need Vitamin k at birth?

A historical look at how Vitamin K came into routine use.

"How did humans survive before the introduction of vitamin K shot?" 

Pretty well actually. 

However, there was an epidemic of Newborn Haemorrhagic Disease (Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding) in the US starting around the 1930s. 

At one point it reached almost one percent of babies. This was a huge departure from the earlier rates of under 1/1000 in term babies and a little higher in preemies. 

No one knew why, and did not seem particularly interested in the jump because the CURE was found! 

Give every baby a Vit K shot and NHD will just about disappear. So they did. 

Researchers questioned why it seemed limited to American-style obstetrics. Babies SHOULD be born with enough Vitamin K from their mothers to protect them in the first days while they began to accumulate their own 

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. God did not make mistakes in our perfect divine design.

So what changed? 

Four innovations:

1. Mothers were given anaesthetics which rapidly depleted their levels of Vitamin K

2. Births were conducted under 'sterile' conditions and babies immediately washed with germicide, then wrapped into sterile clothing. The sterile handling continued through the hospital stay, with everyone gloved and masked, and in some regions even the mothers. The goal was to prevent babies from touching human skin (especially the mothers'). 

3. Babies were under 'gastric rest'. They were not given any food nor attempts at nursing for three days. (In some radical regions it was only 48 hours!) They might be given sterile water "if needed" at 12 or 24 hours, but they were not fed. Colostrum was thought to be a gastric irritant and worthless, and since the natural time of milk production is three to five days, they assumed it was normal physiology for babies to "rest their stomachs.”

4. When babies were finally permitted to be fed, the mother's nipples were first washed with germicide and dried. The mothers were not permitted to touch their babies. Babies came with their hands tied under the wrappings or in mittens to prevent skin contact. Sterile procedures were throughout the hospital stay and were to be followed as long as possible after going home.

This is what we know now:

1. Maternal levels of vitamin K affect foetal levels of vitamin K. Medications which reduce maternal levels should be avoided.

2. The baby is normally inoculated with bacteria during the birth process and especially in the first half hour after birth through skin-to-skin contact with the mother. These bacteria are essential to the manufacture of baby's vitamin K. Washing after birth and use of sterile wrappings is detrimental.

3. Colostrum is a source of vitamin K, AND it contains probiotic and prebiotic bacteria which rapidly colonise and begin the vitamin K process.

4. Skin contact with the mother's nipples is another primary source of necessary bacteria. Washing with a germicide is detrimental.

5. Colostrum and milk are food for the beneficial bacteria. Withholding feeds and sterile feeds prevent the inoculation AND the growth of those bacteria that the baby has initially acquired.

And what it all comes down to is:

To promote rapid (normal) growth of the bacteria essential to vitamin k levels of newborn babies, the baby should not be washed after birth, should be kept in skin-to-skin contact, and early feeds should be encouraged. The more quickly the baby has established a milk supply, the more quickly his normal gut bacteria will flourish and provide adequate vitamin K.

Amazing how it seems yet again medicalized birth practices CAUSED this issue and not surprisingly found “the cure.”

We are perfectly created and the @reclaimbirthconference  aims to honour our divine design and help understand our biological and physiological being.