vitamin k, eye ointment, hep b, and circumcision

So many decisions to make for a newborn baby. After some research, we've decided to do none of those "normal" newborn procedures. Here's just a quick review of what we found on each topic, in case you're curious. (After typing it all, I see that it's not really so short).

Vitamin K is an injection given to newborns since babies don't make very much vitamin k until they're a week old, and vitamin K is what makes blood clot. So if a baby is bruised during the birth or something like that, they may need more vitamin K than what their little body has ready. Delaying cord clamping (waiting until the umbilical cord stops pulsating before clamping and cutting it) helps the baby with vitamin K and many other things. Vitamin K isn't passed through the placenta before birth, but colostrum (the first milk the baby gets) is high in vitamin K if the mom is getting plenty of vitamin K (in things like spinach, kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and supplements). The risk with not getting the shot is a very small chance of brain hemorrhage. The risks associated with getting the shot are possibly a small chance of leukemia and a higher risk of jaundice, plus the pain of the injection and a possible reaction to the ingredients in the shot. It seems that there really haven't been many studies on vitamin K and babies, and the amount of vitamin K in the injection is probably way more than even an adult should have, so the liver has to work extra hard to process it and may contribute to jaundice. We found an option that's used in many other countries, though--vitamin k drops. The drops don't seem to have any of the same risks of the injection, so we've decided to do those instead. We had to order the drops, and the smallest size has 440 drops in it, so if anyone wants some in the next six months, let me know, and we'd be happy to share. It appears that we just need to give one drop when he's born, one at one week, and one at one month.

The erythromycin eye ointment is given to prevent blindness from bacteria of gonorrhea and chlamydia. Not having either of those, I'm not too concerned about it, although it appears that some babies pick up bacteria from being handled by hospital staff, too. The ointment actually isn't really extremely effective against all that bacteria anyway, though. So even babies who are treated with the ointment can end up getting bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eye). As long as the bacteria is then treated when symptoms appear, the eyes should be just fine. The risks of getting the ointment are clogged tear ducts and that the baby can't see as well for awhile and may miss out on some of that brand new bonding time.

Hepatitis B is passed through body fluids and can be passed from a mom who has it to her new baby. I don't have hepatitis B, so I don't see any reason to give our baby a vaccine against it. Evalana didn't get this vaccine, either.

And circumcision. I haven't found any good reason to cut off a part of our baby's body since God made him this way. I have found many reasons not to circumcise him, though, including a risk of death with the procedure.

We have decided to do the newborn screening, though. This means they'll stab his heel, put some of his blood on a piece of paper, and send it in to be tested for many different disorders. Although I don't like the idea of hurting our baby, it'd be great to know if he had some disorder that needs to be treated. The test is actually paid for by the state of Missouri (where he'll be born), which I don't understand, but it's nice. When Evalana did this, it was an awful experience. Her blood clotted too quickly, so they had to stab her twice. Then we got a call saying they didn't put the date on the form, so we had to do it again. The second time they put the wrong date and no time on the form, so we had to do it again. I was not very happy about the experience. I'll be looking very carefully over Lazarus's form.

So that's what we've come up with for our decisions on Lazarus's first day. Will it get easier with more babies, or will I just keep finding new things to research?