Hep B/vitamin K/delayed Cord Clamping

I understand the wish to go natural.

Even MIDWIVES give the Vitamin K shots: http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/vitKvgf.html

Get the shots. Babies DIE from both HepB and lack of vitamin K (life threatening bleeding).

Delayed chord clamping is a good idea, and has positive medical benefit for the baby.

No idea about the placenta.

Sorry, but you're going to get "not positive" responses if you're going to endanger your child's life based on bad science.

We had one mom on here a few years ago who was SO extremely militant about all-natural births and breastfeeding, that she said awful things about hospitals and OB-GYNS in general and started a firestorm asking here why women have babies if they aren't going to breastfeed, insinuating that they couldn't possibly love their children if they didn't breastfeed. I've never seen so many responses to a question in the many years I've been here. Whew!

I'm heartened to see that your post doesn't have her tone. She went through a pregnancy here and when it was time to gave birth, labored with her midwife at home for so long, not wanting to go to the hospital, that her midwife finally told her that she wouldn't be responsible for her and her baby's lives and that she had to go to the hospital. When she got there, they knew that baby was too big to be born and took it by c-section with her screaming at the top of her lungs. Poor her and poor hospital. The baby turned out to be over 10 pounds and after she had some time to digest it all, she admitted that the baby wouldn't have survived if she had waited any longer.

The point that I am trying to make is that all-natural sounds great to moms who are very excited about the idea of it. But birth isn't all roses and babies are at risk in very real ways in the laboring process and right after birth. The doctors don't always tell moms what is going on because they don't want to scare the bejeebers out of them. My first was put on my tummy and they took their time clamping and cutting the cord (my husband cut the cord). My mom got some nice pictures. I nursed him for a few minutes, but they took him to get him cleaned up, and I didn't see him for a while. When I asked, they told me that they couldn't get his temperature to stop fluctuating, so it would be a while longer. If they hadn't taken him from me, they wouldn't have known. They were doing a very good job with him. When I did see him again, he was fine, thanks to their work.

With my second, I labored a long time with him because he was face up, and we didn't know it for a long time. He was battered and bruised when he came out, and though I did hold him for a bit, they whisked him away pretty quickly. After I delivered my placenta and they cleaned me up, the nurse took me down the hall in a wheelchair. They called a code on my baby that I didn't understand, the nurse left me to go in, and after a while someone else took me to my room. I never found out what happened - it turned out that he was fine, but it was because they took care of him. I didn't push the issue because I was scared to know.

So, I'm using my own birth experiences to say, please don't lose sight of what's REALLY important. They do what they do in the hospitals to save babies' lives. Infant mortality rates used to be so much higher than they are now. The vaccinations are important. There are some scary germs out in the world. Before vaccinations, in my mom's childhood, children died as a regular event from all kinds of diseases. As an example, she told me how grateful she was when they came out with a polio vaccine when I was little - it was on a sugar cube. She personally knew people who came down with polio and within a day were paralyzed or DEAD. How terrible to go to the doctor sick and be told that within "x" amount of hours, your family would be preparing for your funeral, or how to take care of you in a wheelchair (or iron lung) for the rest of your days!

So, if you can try to get past the excitement of doing what you hear and read that is all about "natural", you might see that "natural" can be very unforgiving. The reason that they have protocol for newborns is because of what they have experienced and they try hard to make babies more healthy.

All my best to you in your upcoming birth!

I'm 100% with you and understand your concerns. Mercola has a good article on Vitamin K where he explains why the supplementation is beneficial but gives alternative suggestions such as giving it orally. The Hep B shot is totally ridiculous and unnecessary unless the mother has Hep B. All of my kids got these, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have decided differently.

If you're delivering in a hospital setting, you may want to go with a midwife or bring a doula in to advocate for your wishes during and immediately after birth. A birthing center might be a better option for you as those usually align more with a non-medicalized approach to birth. If none of those is an option, discuss your wishes ahead of time with your OB and make sure that your wishes are in your chart and that whoever will be in the room with you (your spouse or support person) is aware of and can articulate your wishes.

Congratulations and best wishes to you!

Why avoid the immunizations? The vitamin K is especially important. Don't look for advice online. Talk to your doctor or midwife.

We got the shots and did delayed cord clamping (took 3 min). Also delayed bath for a few hours (they got cleaned up after birth though, just no bath right away).

I wanted a natural experience too but nature had different plans for me. However, I absolutely understand the importance of the shots and discussed it with my doula and would not have denied them by any means. I urge you to go with the flow, and remember that the shots/drops are standard practice for a reason.

With my first I wasn't given the option to say no, they just whisked him away and did it. I really didn't know any better which didn't help.
With my second we did delayed cord clamping, Hep B wasn't recommended when he was born so it wasn't an issue. We didn't do the Vitamin K and the antibiotic eye ointment until we were about to leave to allow for as much bonding in the beginning as possible.
With my third, we were going to delay cord clamping but her cord actually cut itself as soon as she came out (I delivered her and was bringing her to my side when it snapped) so it had to be clamped immediately so we didn't bleed out. We didn't do Hep B at all because we all agreed there was no reason to put a minutes or hours old immune system into distress like that. That newborn Hep B shot can cause fevers and other side effects that aren't good for a newborn. We did opt to do the Vitamin K shot and we didn't do the antibiotic eye goop at all.
We had a much better time of things with the ones we went more natural.
ETA: We did do he Hep B series when they got a little older. We simply did not get it as a newborn.

Yes! You can skip all of that and baby will *probably* be okay. You can drink 1 beer when pregnant, smoke 1 cigarette when pregnant, skip your prenatal vitamins and baby will *probably* be okay, but why chance it?

Like other moms have said, keep an open mind. Everyone involved in your baby's delivery just hopes for happy and healthy.

Sorry, can't give any positive responses to someone who wants to refuse immunizations.

i wanted to go natural, deny the shots and delay the cord cutting but in the end, at the birth i ended up just rolling with the flow. i was tired, and hurting from the labor and wanted to nurse my baby in my room without tons of people around. so my babies got their shots, and a bath then i got my alone time with them.
consider keeping your options open till delivery. no one kinows whats going to happen.

Have you talked to your OB or midwife? It's fine to have a birth plan, but your doctor/midwife needs to agree with it.

The delayed cord clamping wasn't a "thing" yet when I delivered, although I have heard positive things about it. I think that is worth a discussion with your delivery team (and you need to have that discussion now, not in middle of labor). For the other 2, I did not hesitate. No way I was going to risk my newborn dying of something 100% preventable.

My midwife recommended to deny the Hep b and having the vit K orally. I had 2 natural births in a hospital. All my and my husbands wishes were granted. We also opted for clamping the cord after a couple of minutes.
I asked to have the baby right after the birth on my chest so I was able to breastfeed and give the baby some peace to bond. Since both births were without any complication our requests were respected. We informed the doctor and the hospital in advance and everyone was on board with us. We felt very lucky we found the right doctor and the nurses were awesome.

My kids are now in elementary age. Happy, healthy and smart. I am glad I made those decisions.

I wish you a happy pregnancy. Listen to your inner feelings. They are typically right.

I urge you to really consider the vitamin K. I know a couple who had a healthy pregnancy, no complications, and then the baby had brain bleeding the day after he was born. He is doing well now, and thank god they got the vitamin K injection at birth, or who knows what would have happened. It turned out he had a rare genetic disorder that wasn't detected during pregnancy. I do know some people who had births at home, no vitamin K, no HBV at birth (they did do it later), and their kids are fine. Most babies are OK and don't have excessive bleeding. But the consequences if they do and you haven't protected them can be fatal. That's not a chance I would personally take. I hope you really consider it before you make your choice. Also, you would be surprised at how many people in the US have hepatitis B. I had my son vaccinated as soon as he was able to be. The risks if things went bad for him and he didn't receive them were much worse to me than the risks of receiving them.