Parents are refusing the life-saving Vitamin K injection for newborn babies in new anti-science trend
The anti-vaccine and anti-science movements impact more than just childhood vaccines. Pediatricians are reporting that mothers are rejecting the routine vitamin K injection for their babies after giving birth, convinced by anti-science propaganda that it’s harmful to their health, and sometimes believing that it’s a form of vaccination.
Doctors provide vitamin K injections to newborns as a means of life-saving blood clotting to stop bleeding, which could lead to brain damage and death.
Recently, a Boston pediatrician, Dr. Michael O'Brien, discussed his experience working in a newborn nursery at his hospital. After months working there, he said, he had “met many parents either hesitant about giving their newborn vitamin K, and a few refusing it altogether.”
He wrote a thread on the trend he was seeing amongst parents and caregivers expressing concern about providing their newborns with the injection to prevent a condition known as Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB).