What’s more alarming is that the person giving you grief might actually be a midwife! Aren’t midwives supposed to be natural birth advocates?
Hospital Midwives Not So Different from Nurses?
Not anymore if the emails I am receiving about it are any indication. It seems that hospital midwives are becoming mouthpieces of conventional medical dogma unlike more open minded midwives who attend births in homes or birthing centers.
Obviously, not all hospital midwives can be categorized this way, but it is definitely something for new parents to watch out for.
Hint: if you would prefer not be harassed, intimidated and forced to defend your lifestyle during one of life’s most precious moments (the birth of your child), my advice would be to skip the hospital drama. Have your baby at home or at a freestanding birth center instead.
I realize that not everyone may have the luxury of that choice. The hospital might be the only game in town. If that’s the case, be ready, have a true birth advocate by your side (Dad, Mom, doula, or close relative/friend) at all times and hold firm. Don’t expect the midwife to necessarily be on your side if you are in a hospital setting.
How one Mom handled the situation
Beth S. wrote the following to me in a series of emails about the birth of her first grandson last week. The emails below plus the photo above were used with her daughter’s permission.
Dear Sarah,
My daughter had her baby YESTERDAY, completely naturally [in a birthing room at the hospital with a midwife, no doctor] and declined the vitamin K shot! Her midwife gave her hell about it and threatened he could die but she held firm. I was so proud!!!
I was so shocked but my daughter gently, firmly said no and kept returning her to the birth plan already written and in place. You would think since it was already decided on she would have left her alone!
Aimery (our new grandson) is healthy and beautiful and I wish there was some way to thank you for all your hard work. She immediately breast fed and he latched on like a champ.
It is only because she grew up reading your blog and watching me put it into practice, that a new generation in our family is taking seriously the lies of this world and making new family traditions.
Thank you again so much. This child came in the world completely alert and ready to bond and feed. It was my first time witnessing a natural birth and I could have used a Valium, lol!!! That is HARD on a mamas heart but I knew it was her choice so that got me through it.
Sorry, but I just can’t stop thanking you. She is my first born strong willed baby and I am just so thankful she knows what her choices are because of your hard work.
Warrior Moms are a Growing Trend Hospitals Can No Longer Ignore
Bravo to your daughter Beth! I am so glad that she was obviously prepared mentally for a potential battle over her birth plan. I hope Moms-to-be that might be reading this story learn that an approved birth plan that is already in place is no guarantee that you won’t still be harassed at the hospital during one of the most vulnerable moments of your entire life.
Conversely, I hope any hospital staff that read this realize that a dogmatic, inflexible approach to birth is no longer working. Hospitals must either learn to work with a patient’s needs and desires for a nontoxic, gentle birth experience or they will go elsewhere. Simply hiring a few midwives to make the hospital look on the surface like an open-minded, welcoming place to give birth naturally on par with a homebirth or a birth center is not going to cut it.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
This is awesome! Good job Mama for sticking to your convictions regardless of pressure to conform to the norm! And thank you Sarah for educating us on so many important topics:)
I did the same thing with both of my kids (7 and 5) in two different hospitals. My midwife gave me a talk before hospital, but I brought a print out of ingredients (Scary! There is so much more then just k1, but doctors and nurses don’t even know.) and studies that say it increases blood cancer 30% in kids who had K shot. Also, I included info on how rare the condition they try to prevent with the shot (can’t remember, but something like 1 in 10,000 babies).
I asked the midwife to give me the vitamin k shot so that it could be passed on to to baby through my breastmilk at the perfect amount it needed. She was furious and said no I can’t do that. Couldn’t say why not. Much better to ibject a baby with it. Duh.
Maybe the midwife is on the side of the newborn baby!
Do you even realise why vitamin K is necessary? Why would you refuse it..?
Honestly, why did THIS come up in my Google Now feed??
The new mom didn’t say she wouldn’t give her new son the K vitamin just not the synythetic shot the midwife wanted to give him. Why choose a fake vitamin when a perfectly natural one is available? Obviously, mom chose the natural one.
Marta, lighten up. Human women have been giving birth for 10’s of thousands of years without the help of ‘modern medicine.’ While even I will admit that modern medicine can and do save the lives of many babies when ‘things don’t go right,’ the medical community is also well known and documented to cause a great deal of harm (other than immediate death) using many of their ‘standard protocols.’ …and I’m not as sure about the replacements for silver nitrate either.
Harassing a mother to try to get her to do something that she has already decided not to do is a disgraceful act unless there is a real immediate threat to the child.
As usual Sarah, thanks for informing us!
I just experienced a very similar episode in April when our 5th child was born. All of my children were born naturally in hospitals (my first 3 were high risk cases) and none ever received antibiotics, eye drops, vaccinations or vitamin k injections. My first and last experiences with the pediatric hospital staff were the worst. The first one bringing me to tears when she accused me of being a “horrible mother” for refusing to protect my brand new baby from “preventable disease” s) and the last one not only going so far as to interrogate and belittle me over refusing the vitamin K injection **in the hallway outside the nursery in plain view and earshot of everyone around** but to even make a sarcastic comment about the name we had chosen for our son! She literally said that if we got into a car accident on the way home he would bleed to death and die and it would be due to our negligence!
(My husband and I never allow our babies out of our sight. If they need to be taken to the nursery for any purpose we escort them and stand outside to witness everything going on…In this case I think that angered the hospital pediatrician.)
I think that medical professionals who behave in this manner should be liable for harassment and discrimination against parents who disagree with and refuse their recommendations (for ANY reason…medical, philosophical or religious.) If we can have rulings against private business owners refusing to provide a service to or discriminating against certain groups of people medical professionals shouldn’t be exempt. (I’ve lost count of the number of pediatric practices we’ve been dismissed from because we choose not to vaccinate!)
Back in 2007 when my son was born, the hospital threw away our oral vitamin K. We had administered one dose, however, we had to rush order another bottle at the time. They were livid with us for refusing vaccines, eye ointment, vit. K shot, etc. We even requested the insert for the Vitamin K shot from the hospital pharmacy….so many possible adverse effects, including death.
Well done to Beth, her daughter and new grandson!!!!
Yup, same here. When we came into the hospital with our very natural birth plan for our second daughter, the nurse immediately jumped on us for refusing all manner of “protocols.” She kept telling my husband that all manner of shots and eye drops were important and even went so far as to tell me that there was only one way to deliver a baby and that was with me lying on my back with my feet propped up on stirrups. I don’t think she liked the fact that it was too natural and kept telling me to push when I wasn’t even ready. I just had to ignore her ridiculous attitude while I wallowed in pain, unfortunately. When our baby started pushing her way out, on her own, the nurse told me to stop pushing hahaha! The doctor came in and informed the nurse that the baby was coming out whether I pushed or not. Now we have a healthy 2 year old little girl who’s blessed with never having endured unnecessary shots.
That was smart – overwhelm them with info! Thanks again, Sarah, for shining the light on so many subjects and for the moms who are open minded enough to listen!
Unfortunately, this is not the case in my entourage. I know two two-year olds who can’t speak – one can’t even say, ‘mama’ or ‘dada’. One mother said, “I researched the vaccines!”
Google ‘infant vaccines’ and you’ll have to scroll down forever until you hit a negative.
A speech therapist friend said, “Get them off the screens!” telling me her professional publications suggest only after the age of three should children be exposed to screens – absolutely rejected by these mothers.
Could you please shed some light on the efficacy of the oral drops vs the injectable? I am an RN who has worked on L&D for 12 years now and have yet to see any. Also, the behavior described by many patients of hospital labor & delivery units is pretty sad. My colleagues would never conduct themselves this way and it seems deplorable. What’s worse, is blogs like this (which I actually really enjoy) serve to foster more drama in the situation. We really don’t need more patients coming in scared or absolutely terrified when they try to have a birth in a birthing center and it doesn’t go well. Because let’s face it, that happens all too often. Even if we only see it a couple times a year, that’s too much. Because babies can be born with life threatening conditions as a result of a failed home birth. Not that the hospital can’t sometimes be blamed for mismanaging things, but being born at home isn’t always the better option. So as I always say, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Hospitals are not all bad, and there are plenty of good providers in the hospital and outside of it.
The efficacy comparisons are in this article: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/oral-vitamin-k-better-vitamin-k-shot/
What could happen if I didn’t give my baby the vitamin K shot and do not supplement?
My 3 children never had the vitamin K shot and I did not give them oral K either. They are all fine 🙂 Oldest is 19 youngest is 12.
I am going to ask my midwife at my next appointment if I can get the oral vitamin K instead of the shot. I am just worried she will say no and I won’t have a choice. And unfortunately in Nebraska there are no freestanding Birth centers and they are very pro immunization. I also want to say no to the eye ointment but when I told my husband about it he was horrified, and even when I try to show him articles about these things he still sides mostly with the doctors. He laughs at the memes on Facebook that show a demon child and the description says “antivaxer kid coming out of the ball pit”. He thinks kids that don’t have injections are a harm to other kids and like I said no article will convince him otherwise. He thinks it’s all opions. I have no one who will be on my side in these things, I cannot afford to look for a Doula and I know my mum is not the kind of woman to stand up against the doctors. So what do I do if I have no choice but to have the shot and the eye ointment? Should I put the baby on baby probiotics right after?
Hi Ruth,
I would advise you to let go of some of this anxiety. Some people have options others do not. Your children do not have to have perfect childhoods to thrive. By all means, do the best you can, but worry will not help them. Over the years, if you maintain open communication, many people (even husbands) change in ways you may not expect, but those changes are not likely to come all at once—you have to be an example and invest patience. My 3 kids had the standard hospital protocols even though I had “natural” hospital births due to where I lived—they have all turned out fine. They need love much more than they need the perfect diet/health protocols. Do feed them healthy food and choose health procedures if you can—but don’t panic .