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Yes, I am an herbal medicine loving midwife who gave birth at home and chose to give the vitamin K injection to my baby

birth newborn medications postpartum vitamin k injection vitamin k oral vitamin k shot Apr 03, 2026

 

In the pic above, our son is receiving the vitamin K shot from our midwife a few hours after his birth. The reason we chose to give him the shot was really quite simple: there are decades of safety data on the vitamin K shot and it was not worth risking Vitamin K Deticiency Bleeding (VKDB), which can be fatal.

I wish the vitamin K injection was not so controversial.

That said, | 100% understand parents asking questions and being thoughtful about what they put into their baby's body. My understanding from sitting in rooms with thousands of parents over the years is that hesitation about Vitamin K comes from a place of love and wanting to protect their baby. At the end of the day, you can choose to accept or decline anything! Just as I know that not everyone agrees with my decision to birth at home. I know I made a very informed choice to do so.

With vitamin K, along with anything else, I try to provide information and then support the family's choice.

A tew things to know about the vitamin K shot:

  • babies are born with low Vitamin K. Their guts do not contain enough bacteria to produce vitamin K right away.
  • Vitamin K is a critical clotting factor needed to prevent bleeding.
  • some types of births or procedures can predictably lead to more risk of bleeding (such as forceps assisted birth or circumcision) but babies can have micro brain bleeds or bleeding from other sites such as umbilical stumps/GI tract/skin, even in the most uncomplicated and non-traumatic births.
  • in the US, there is no FDA approved oral version of vitamin K. I think many people feel they are causing less pain because it's not an injection, but you can breastfeed your baby while getting the shot and keep them very comfortable. And although I've never tasted it myselt, l imagine the oral vitamin K tastes pretty nasty! So I'm not sure it's the more "pleasant" option. Injection versus oral in deemed more effective, especially for "later" vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

Did you choose to give your baby vitamin K?

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