Saturday, October 22, 2011

Why I Didn't Breastfeed My Baby

Over the last 2 years or so since I've had the internet (yes, I lived my whole life without it!), I've read every excuse under the sun for why people didn't breastfeed their babies.  I've read sad stories of moms who could have done so much better if given a little support.  I've also personally known mothers who have said outright that they didn't want to breastfeed their baby because they "just wanted [their own] body back", and they went into detail about how they hated being pregnant...  And then there was one, Rebecca, who boasted about how her boobs would be "perky" because her daughters had been given formula, and that those who breastfed were "jealous" of her.

It's hard not to want to shake someone who says that they "don't give a shit what anyone says" (meaning every Health Organization EVER), because "formula is just as good".

Before I knew better, there was a time that I too used formula.  I'll tell you why.

Once upon a time I had twins.  They were born at 30 weeks, and were very small and weak when they were born.  My son was less than 4 lbs, my daughter was less than 3 lbs.  My son was born with severe AOP (apnea of prematurity), and bradycardias, and was fitted with a CPAP (which was referred to as an "Aladin" in the NICU).  My daughter was born after 5 minutes without oxygen, and was immediately given a breathing tube that went in her nose and down to her lungs.  Immediately after their birth they were both taken away to the NICU.  They brought my daughter back in so I could see that she was alive, and then I didn't see them again for five hours. I was ready and able to see them, and refused to sleep until they let me, but they were "doing rounds", and I wasn't allowed to be in there until they were done.

After being taken back to my room after having them, I started pumping.  For the first 24 hours they got only IV vitamins and minerals, and then after that they got the tiny bit of colostrum I was able to pump.  Every 3 hours around the clock I pumped.  I stayed in the hospital for 3 days...a day longer than needed, but the Dr. on during that time said he would write that I needed "observation" so I could stay an extra day...so I'd have access to my twins.  Going home without them was surreal.  Not what I had imagined. Nothing was the way I thought it would be.  Leaving them there, fighting for their lives in the NICU was NOT part of my birth plan.

This was the actual sign outside the NICU my twins stayed in.
When I went home I took with me a hospital-grade pump.  And again, every 3 hours around the clock I pumped them my special milk.  We visited every single day, and I took it with me.  They were fed it through their NG tubes, and at the time it was all I could really do for them.

When they were 32 weeks (gestational age), 2 weeks actual age, I was allowed to start trying to put them to breast.  I'll never forget that first time.  My daughter had been doing sucking actions when I held her, and finally after harassing the nurses for a week, I was allowed to see if she could suck.  The nurse that helped me was amazing.  I mean, she was a wonderful blessing in my life...I wish I could have seen her more often.  She put up a screen so I could try nursing them right there at their incubators, and she helped me get them both on at the same time.  It was crazy...two very floppy babies, both trying to nurse.  Neither of them gained anything from it...they hadn't taken any milk.  But at least they tried.  They were still too small, and hadn't learned to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time.

5 weeks old.
I kept trying.  I was determined to breastfeed those babies.  I had wanted to even before they were born early, and because I knew my milk was specially made for my preemies, I was even MORE determined.  I was unstoppable.

Then I met my match.  Her name was Erin, and she was a nurse in the NICU.  During one of her shifts she was caring for my twins, and one other baby.  I asked her if I could take one of them into the nursing room and put them on my boob.  She snapped.  She told me that I was "wasting the nurses time trying to breastfeed".  She told me that I was "wasting the babies' valuable calories trying to breastfeed for 45 minutes, and they never took more than 1cc of milk."  She said that unless I wanted them to stay in the hospital for even longer, I had to "accept" that I wasn't going to be able to breastfeed them, and that I needed to "focus on pumping".  Then she handed me my son and told me to GO.

I just stood there with my mouth open.  I took my son and just wanted to cry.  We went into the nursing room, and I remember saying to him "you have to really nurse well, buddy.  You need to take more milk than you've ever taken, or I'm not going to get to do this anymore."  He took 2ccs.  My daughter took none.

After that I did what I was told.  I focused on pumping.  When they wanted to introduce a bottle, I did it.  It was a step up from their NGHaberman" bottle.

For 6 weeks they were in the NICU, and then the NPCU (progressive care unit), before they were moved into the "Care By Parent" unit of the NICU.  I got to live there with them in the hospital, and do 95% of their care for the last 16 days of their stay.  There I would pump around the clock, and feed them in their special bottles, and when the nurses were busy, I would try to put them on my boob.  I was sneaking, trying to prove them wrong.  I knew if we went home on bottles, they'd end up on formula.  Pumping every 3 hours and feeding them for 45 mins. each was exhausting.  I knew I couldn't keep it up.

This was the pump I used.  We had a love/hate relationship.  LOL
This pump was my constant companion.
All around me I saw moms being encouraged to breastfeed.  I saw babies taking 100ccs of breast milk in 20 mins., and the most my twins ever took was about 10ccs.  (And that was an accomplishment!)  Never was I really encouraged to breastfeed them.  They said I lived too far away...that I couldn't put enough time in, so I'd never be successful.

Two days before I left the hospital, I started taking Domperidone to increase my supply since there was only the EXACT amount they were taking in every feed being produced.  If that kept up, there was no way I was going to be able to make enough milk for the two of them.

We took them home at 8 1/2 weeks, after 58 days in the hospital.  Before we left the nurse in the CBP unit told me that if something happened and I was only able to make enough milk for one, that it had to be my son who got it.  He was the sicker, weaker twin...even though he was bigger.  It had always been that way, and she said he would benefit the most from my milk.

They were both still using the Haberman bottles when they were discharged, but we didn't use them at home.  I would just let them suck, pull the bottle out of their mouth to let them breathe and swallow, then put it back in.  It was normal for every feeding to take 45 mins.  I was still pumping, around the clock.  One of the lactation consultants there lived around the corner from us, and brought me a breastfeeding scale.  She said that I might never get them to gain weight, but if I wanted to try, she wanted me to know how much they were taking.  Michelle Carr was her name, and she is the only reason this story has any good in it.

For the first two weeks I worked on getting my son more on the boob, and less on the bottle.  By the time he was 12 weeks old, he could nurse at every feed and gain weight!  It took a lot of work, especially since I had no help, and my husband was working 14 hour days.  But we worked together, and he turned out to be a fantastic nurser!  I kept pumping for my daughter, and tried at least once daily to get her to nurse.

By the time I could completely focus on my daughter's breastfeeding they were about 14 weeks actual age, 4 weeks corrected.  I hadn't wanted to move onto her until my son was well established.  I thought at the time that what I was doing was the best plan of action.  Well I guess I was wrong.  By that time she was terrified of my boob.  I honestly can't say I blame her.  My boob was twice the size of her head!  The only time I could get her to actually take the boob was in the middle of the night when she was still asleep and her eyes were closed so she couldn't see it coming.  She couldn't latch properly, so it literally felt like there were razors inside of her mouth, cutting at my nipple.  I was at a loss.

I called the hospital and asked to speak to the LC that was on.  It was not Michelle.  The woman I spoke to told me that there was "no reason she shouldn't be able to nurse properly and gain weight."  She told me to go 24 hours ONLY offering her the boob, and see if when forced, she would gain weight.  She reminded me at that time that because she was a micro-preemie, that she would need to be re-admitted into the hospital again if she went two full days without gaining weight.  Then wished me luck and said goodbye.

I thought she had to know what she was talking about.  This was her JOB.  She did this every single day.  She had to know better than I did...I was new at this and only got my son breastfeeding by a stroke of luck.  So I took out all bottles, and tried putting my little girl on my boob every time she was hungry.  She didn't gain one ounce...nothing.  After 24 hours she lost a full pound.  I was horrified.  All that kept going through my mind was that she would have to go back into the hospital, and even now, almost 3 1/2 years later, that brings me to tears.  I can't even explain just how traumatizing the NICU was...that will be another post.  I don't even like thinking about it.  But the thought of my daughter having to go back to the hospital...the thought that if she went back that it was because I had failed her...I couldn't do it.  There was no way that she was going to go back there.  I couldn't let it happen.  So I did what I had to do to keep her home, and I pumped and fed her my milk in a bottle.  Defeated.

By the time the twins were a week away from being 4 months actual age, my son was very literally taking every single drop of milk I had in my breasts.  I literally could not pump or squeeze a single drop of milk out of my boob after he was done.  There was nothing there.  Nothing.  Even taking Domperidone, there was NOTHING left.  I had to put my daughter on prescription preemie formula.  That was one of the lowest moments I had ever experienced in my life.  I didn't put her on formula because I wanted to.  I did it because I had to.  I had to give my son my milk because he was sicker and weaker, and I had to feed her something!  It cost $99 a case for 6 half-sized cans.  My husband's health insurance didn't cover it, and we were never able to write it off.  She had it from 4 months old until 11 months.  My husband wasn't very impressed at the cost of the formula, so on top of knowing I had failed her, I also got to listen to him bitch about the price of the formula.  He never directed his anger toward me, but he didn't need to.  I knew that the only reason she was on it was because of me.  It was my fault.

I ended up breastfeeding my son until he was 22 months old...two months into my next pregnancy.  I had to wean him because it was considered a no-sex, high-risk pregnancy.  After two previous premature labors, we didn't want to risk it.  The Dr. said I could continue to breastfeed, but he wouldn't recommend it.  He said that it would be in my baby's best interest to stop, just to be safe.  And I was TORN.  I wanted so badly to keep going until he was two...but he was so close.  In the end I stopped.  I had to fight for this new baby in the same way I would fight for my twins.  I would do whatever it took to make sure that my baby had the best chance.  Even if I ended up feeling like a failure once again, in the end.  As I saw it then (and still do), my feelings don't matter, really.  Not when I have to choose between them and my kids.  I knew that my son would be okay if I stopped, and I couldn't guarantee that the baby would be okay if I kept going.  So I told him that boobie was all gone.  He never cried about it, but for the first two days he would come over and want it, and I would tell him it was all gone, and just hold him.  It was like he knew I couldn't handle any tears from him about it.  He has always been such a kind and loving little boy...  Again, I can't get too much more into it because it makes me want to cry.

When my new baby was born, I had her on my boob within a few minutes.  She didn't latch exactly right and I didn't even care.  She was getting milk, and that's all that mattered to me.  By the end of the first week my nipples were so sore they were bleeding.  She had literally sucked the skin from the top half of both my nipples.  (They'll never look the same!)  I had to use one boob per feed, just to give the other one a little break.  I got through it.  There was NOTHING that was going to stop me.  I didn't give a shit about how much it hurt.  I didn't care.  I was GOING to be successful this time.  NO MATTER WHAT.  I knew she had a tongue-tie, but so did my son.  I couldn't explain what the problem was, but I figured out how to nurse her without her ingesting any more of my breast tissue.

She's 11 months old now.  Only about a month and a half ago I read something that came up on my wall about lip ties.  That little girl has the most severe lip tie there is!  I had never heard of it before, so had no idea that it could happen, obviously.  That was the major difference between her and my son.  After seeing that, I checked my older daughter's mouth.  Sure enough, she too has a lip tie!!!!!  She also has a very deep palate at the top of her mouth, and a tongue tie.  I'm no longer surprised that I had problems breastfeeding her.  But knowing why it "probably" happened isn't going to change the fact that it DID happen.  I have to live with the knowledge that my precious and funny and sweet girl didn't get the same as her brother and sister.  And that's on me.

This is the baby's lip tie.

So, it's been hard for me to figure out how to write this post and get it out the way I want to get it out.  Because it kills me to hear excuses that mothers make.  I HATE excuses.  There are facts, and there are REASONS, but excuses are something people make up when they know they didn't do what they should have done.  I've heard them all.  And sometimes I want to shake people for stopping when they were doing well, because they had other priorities...but I don't want to mix them up with the women who didn't breastfeed at all, or for as long as they wanted to, for real legitimate reasons.  Sometimes they get mixed together and it's hard to distinguish them from one another.  But there are definitely two distinct groups, and I don't want to focus on the moms who chose to stop breastfeeding.  It puts me in a bad mood.

The fact is that breast milk is specially designed for each individual baby, and it's a baby's right to have it.  People say "breast is best", but in reality, when you stop beating around the bush, the truth is that "formula is NOT best".  Breastfeeding is "normal".  Formula feeding is "abnormal".  Breastfeeding provides your baby with immunities.  Formula does not

I would never say that breastfeeding moms are better moms.  Sometimes that's not the case at all.  Sometimes a mother gives her baby formula for medical reasons.  Sometimes she gives it to her baby because she doesn't see any other option.  Sometimes giving that baby formula is tearing her heart apart, but she does it because it's all she CAN do.  And you just can't know a persons reasons when you see them check "I didn't breastfeed, I used formula" on a Facebook poll.  What I think is that breastfeeding moms know that breast milk is the best choice for an infant, that she's had some support along the way, and that she's probably overcome some obstacles too.  It's not that often I hear of moms who just instinctively knew how to properly latch and feed their newborn.  The truth is that it's a learning process, just like anything else to do with raising children.  Sometimes it takes a failure to make that mother say that it will NEVER happen again.  Sometimes knowing that they're spending their lives carrying around regret is enough to push moms farther than they've ever been pushed before, and in the end they walk out victorious because they were determined, though hell or high water, they were never going to let themselves have to carry another regret with them through their lives.

My baby girl will be breastfed to a minimum of two years, and hopefully long after that.  I am one of those mothers, and I will never ever carry the regret of unsuccessful breastfeeding with me again.  I will never allow it to happen, because having to explain to my older daughter why she was never breastfed is something I dread, something that hurts my soul to think about.

I had a friend send me an email with a link to a story that had me in tears.  There were just so many similarities between the story I read, and my own.  THIS IS THAT STORY.  (I literally had to stop reading three times to take some time to pull myself together.)

On my personal Facebook page I posted a poll for my own friends, just to see where my own friends stood on breastfeeding.  Below are the results of that poll.

Still Breastfeeding: 23%
No breastfeeding, just formula:  4%
Pumped Milk, no breastfeeding:  1.5%
Less than 6 weeks:  .75% (1 vote)
More than 6 weeks, less than 6 months:  5%
More than 6 months, less than a year:  3%
1 year:  5%
More than a year:  13%
More than 2 years:  8%
More than 3 years:  12%
5 years+ : .75 % (1 vote)





Now, that doesn't add up to 100%, but I'm not going to count "not long enough" votes.  I was looking for a time-frame, not trying to make people feel bad.  (And some of those people checked more than one option, so I just did the math based on 132 votes.)

I really wanted to try to word it so that no one felt like they had to justify their reasons to me.  Of course there are people who felt they needed to explain themselves to me...and that's kind of upsetting.  Many of them haven't breastfed in 20+ years, and they are STILL carrying around the feelings that they didn't do enough.  I'm not sure who's standards they're trying to meet...  And it made me feel like more than anything, breastfeeding has become a contest.  Who can go the longest...and if you aren't the winner, you need to justify why you didn't go as long as someone else.  I breastfed my son for 22 months, and I'm by no means the "winner", but the moms that didn't breastfeed as long as I did felt like they needed to explain themselves to me...why they couldn't go as long as I did.  It made me sad!  I think every single drop of breast milk counts.  I think that we need to climb down off of our high-horse and stop making this a competition.  I think that we need to understand that what we know today is different than what we knew a generation ago, and I'm sure our kids will know more than we do.  Of course babies should have breast milk.  I don't think that's even something that needs to be said...at least it shouldn't have to be.  But maybe if we had less women feeling like they're superior because they breastfed for X amount of time, other women who may have used formula would attempt breastfeeding.  I can't even imagine how scary it is to look at the numbers and think that if you don't make it that far, someone is going to tell you that you didn't try hard enough.

So, the point I'm trying to make is that sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to when we're raising our children.  Sometimes we do what we have to do, or at least what we think we have to do, to get them through.  And sometimes we end up carrying around some regret because of the choices we've made for them.  I wish things were different when it came to breastfeeding my older daughter.  I wish I could go back in time and change it.  I wish that in the very least I could have known about milk donors, so she could have gotten breast milk, even if it wasn't my own.  I wish she could have lived her whole life without ever having formula.  But I can't go back and change things now.  So, it's a cross I bare, and I'm going to have to know that she was given less than the very best.  It makes me sad, and because of my regret I will never ever let it happen again.  Seeing her in her incubator in that operating room was the second my life changed forever, and she has been nothing short of a pleasure to raise.  She is the sweetest, most wonderful, funniest little girl I've ever known in my life, and I love her with all of my heart.  She deserved better.  But I can't change the past.  So all I can do is make sure that for the rest of her life I never ever let her get anything less than the very best ever again.

A very sweet friend of mine (the one who sent me the link) said something that really hit home for me.  Sometimes breastfeeding "excuses" are not at all "excuses".  They are real barriers that women could not overcome...at least not at that time.

And so I'm going to ask something of anyone who's made it this far into this very long post.  If you see a mother feeding her infant formula, instead of shooting her that glare that breastfeeding mothers seem to feel entitled to give, instead remember that you do not know her story.  You don't know if she had support.  You don't know if that baby she's feeding was born early and out of fear, she fed it formula.  You don't know if she was given bad advice from a doctor she thought she could trust.  You can't tell by looking at someone if they are taking anti-seizure medications that are not safe for her infant.  You just don't know.  So please, please don't assume that she's more concerned with going out and partying than breastfeeding, or that she cares more about the "perky-ness" of her breasts than she does about giving her baby her breast milk.  Instead, perhaps when you know of a friend who is going to be having a baby, offer to help her breastfeed.  Offer her some information, and give her the support that she needs.  Sometimes all we need is one person on our side, helping us through it.  Sometimes our own lack of knowledge and experience can be what drags us down, and if we had someone who did have some real experience helping us out and cheering us on, we could succeed too.  Because no one wants to carry around regret.  And no one wants to feed their baby the only way they thought they could, and have other mothers glare at them.  Some of us feel bad enough as it is.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Circumfetishists...What Are We Dealing With?

For whatever reason, this seems to be the most used graphic for circumfetishists.


Taken from:  "Circumfetish", CircLeaks.org

"A circumfetishist is someone who has a sexual fixation for the circumcised penis, and/or derives sexual gratification from the act of circumcision itself [2] (see apotemnophiliaand acrotomophilia). Often their sexual fantasy involves infants.[3][4] Circumfetishism often involves fantasies of power and control, which may be ritualistically acted out. Circumfetishists have at least one website[5] and three clubs.[6] The Circlist website links to a discussion group."



Here's the thing.  You can't know that these sick freaks even exist if no one tells you about them.  I'm not sure if I can NAME them as individuals, without ending up with some over-paid lawyer calling me and suing me for the (very) little money I actually have.  So I'll direct you again to THIS LINK, where you can see the names of some of them.

The reason I'm sharing this today is because way too often, I see parents refer to circinfo.com when they have circumcised their sons, and want to explain where they got their information.  Now, if you take a minute and check out that last link, you'll see it linked to things like 
"The Gilgal Society", "Circlist", and THIS.
(**Warning**, the last link might make you throw up, and it contains *Nudity*, so don't open it at work, or in front of children...or at all if you are easily disturbed).

We cannot protect ourselves from what we do not know.  I urge EVERY parent to look into this a little bit.  Read about who they are, what they stand for.  And know that THESE are the people telling you to have your son circumcised.  These sick freaks get off on it.
A pretty good indication that you're on a circumfetish site is when you find yourself reading things like smegma is "stinky cheese", or something like "[the] operation without anaesthesia soon after birth is devoid of serious complications."  They fail to mention that smegma is naturally occurring in both males and females, and in males, it acts as a sexual lubricant.  A simple rinse with clean, warm water (no soap!) will get rid of it just fine.  No need to remove any body parts!  And they give no thought to the extreme distress a child goes through during a circumcision.  Of COURSE anaesthesia poses a risk to infants, that's been proven.  But the elective nature of this surgery poses a risk as well.  As many as 200 infants die from circumcision-related complications every year in the US.  (It doesn't seem like many, but if one of those 200 boys was one of yours, it sure would.)

The problem with these people is that they feel like they are entitled to get off on watching/performing a circumcision...more often than not, it's a circumcision of an infant.  They call themselves "circumsexuals", as though changing the name of what they are will somehow change the disgusting truth of their fetish.  As one person said perfectly, "they could call themselves 'candy', and they would still be sick perverts."  [That quote may be a little off, so if it was you that said it, I apologize for not quoting you exactly.]  And it's true, really.  It doesn't matter what term they use, the bottom line remains the same.  It is all a little too much to ignore.  IMO, anyone that gets off on ANYTHING to do with children is a pedophile, and they should be in prison.

A good way to know whether or not you are getting your information from a good source is to think about what they (that person or organization) is getting from you if you listen to them and let them cut your son.  If they're getting money, or anything else from your choice...they're BAD.  You can't tell by looking at someone whether or not they're one of these freaks, so you just can't know if that's their reason for pushing you to do it.

Those of us sharing the truth are not making a dime off of you NOT cutting your son.  In fact, most of us (myself included) have spent the little "extra" money we have on intactivist gear, info cards, bracelets, pamphlets, etc., to educate people so we can spare them from the regret of having circumcised their son(s), and so we can spare thier son(s) from an unnecessary, dangerous, and painful cosmetic surgery done without his consent, and against his will.  There's no sexual gratification from saving a baby.  The only gratification comes from knowing that a mother and/or father followed their heart and kept their son safe.  I don't think it gets more pure than that!

I don't know what more to say.  Look at the links, look at the information on those links, and learn those names.  You'll find them all over the web, spouting their pro-circ bullshit, trying to talk parents into cutting their sons for their own personal sexual pleasure.  In a way I kind of hope you don't believe me, and look into it to "prove [me] wrong".  I promise you that you're going to be sick when you find out just how true all of this is.

If you've never heard of this before now, I'm sorry I was the one to tell you.  I wish there wasn't even such a thing as a circumfetishist, and that circumcision was only something that was only performed on a consenting adult, or in a medical emergency.  But that's not the reality we live in.  So, at least today you are a little more aware of what's out there.  This is (sadly) what we're dealing with.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Vitamin K Shots For Newborns



This was taken from OnlineHealthNews.org

It has been standard practice in the U.S., and most western countries, since 1944 to welcome babies into the world by subjecting them to a variety of medical interventions, one of which is a painful jab with a syringe full of vitamin K. This injection is routinely done to almost all newborns, unless you, as a parent, refuse to consent. 
Birth is an overwhelming sensory experience for your baby. He has never before experienced cold or hunger, been blinded by artificial lights, or felt the touch of hands or metal instruments, paper or cloth. Even gravity is a foreign sensation.
A needle stick is a terrible assault to his suddenly overloaded sensory system, which is trying to adjust to the outside world.
Is this injection really in your baby’s best interest?
Is vitamin K really necessary immediately after birth? Or is there a more compassionate alternative?

Vitamin K Shots are Completely Unnecessary for Your Newborn!
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Cees Vermeer, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Maastricht (in The Netherlands), the world’s leading specialist in vitamin K. I am thrilled to be able to share with you the latest information about vitamin K that he shared with me.

The great news: Vitamin K shots are completely unnecessary for your newborn.

While this painful injection is inappropriate for reasons I will cover in detail, vitamin K is necessary. But there are other safer and non invasive ways to normalize your baby’s vitamin K levels that don’t have such damaging effects.

Why is this Shot Given in the First Place?
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood clotting in adults and children. Some babies (in fact, most of them) are born with insufficient vitamin K levels.
In some newborns, this deficiency can lead to a serious bleeding disorder, typically in the first week of life, called Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn (HDN). Internal bleeding occurs in the brain and other organs, leading to serious injury or even death.
While this disease is rare (incidence of 0.25 percent to 1.7 percent[i]), injections of vitamin K have been administered as a preventative measure, whether or not risk factors are present.
Your newborn can be at increased risk for Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn if he or she has any of the following:
  • A forceps or vacuum extraction delivery
  • Mother’s use of antibiotics, anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, and some other medications during pregnancy
  • Undetected liver disease
  • Extremely fast, or extremely prolonged labor, particularly during the pushing phase
  • Delivery by C-section
Unfortunately, the current standard of care regarding Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn and vitamin K was put into practice without adequate research to determine what was best for the newborns. These shotgun approaches were certainly convenient for the physicians but lacked any sort of consideration of side effects for the baby.
Fortunately, subsequent research has revealed that there are safer, better practices that will protect your child from Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn just as well.

The Dangers of the Shot They Don’t Warn You About
There are three primary areas of risk associated with these injections:
1.      Inflicting pain immediately after birth causes psycho-emotional damage and trauma to a newborn, which is totally inappropriate, and unnecessary.
2.      The amount of vitamin K injected into newborns is 20,000 times the needed dose[ii]. Additionally, the injection may also contain preservatives that can be toxic for your baby’s delicate, young immune system.
3.      An injection creates an additional opportunity for infection in an environment that contains some of the most dangerous germs, at a time when your baby’s immune system is still immature.
It is, however, also important to correct the record about one myth that has been propagated for years about the dangers of vitamin K injections in newborns.
It was suggested some years ago that vitamin K injections were associated with cancer and leukemia. However, that conclusion was in error. There is NO known association between the two.
These injections are inappropriate for your baby for the other reasons listed above -- but the increased risk for cancer is not a legitimate concern.
There is also insufficient evidence to say that premature clamping of the umbilical cord leads to lower vitamin K levels in newborns, although you will occasionally see this claim made.

Inflicting Pain Just After Birth Has Long-Term Effects on Your Newborn
For more than a century, many physicians have maintained a denial of infant pain, based on ancient prejudices and “scientific evidence” that was long ago disproven. Many have made claims that newborns don’t feel pain, or remember it, the way adults do.
In fact, not only do infants feel pain, but the earlier they experience it, the more damaging and longer lasting are the psychological effects.
Dr. David B. Chamberlain, psychologist and co-founder of the Association of Pre-and Perinatal Psychology and Health, wrote in his article “Babies Don’t Feel Pain: A Century of Denial in Medicine[iii]”:
“The earlier an infant is subjected to pain, the greater the potential for harm.

Early pains include being born prematurely into a man-made "womb," being born full-term in a man-made delivery room, being subject to any surgery (major or minor), and being circumcised.

We must alert the medical community to the psychological hazards of early pain and call for the removal of all man-made pain surrounding birth.”
Back in 1999, Science Daily published an article[iv] about the findings of a research team at the Washington School of Medicine that newborns who are exposed to a series of painful treatments display a variety of long-term effects as older children, including an altered response to pain and an exaggerated stress response.
A 2004 study[v] found that very early pain or stress experiences have long-lasting adverse consequences for newborns, including changes in the central nervous system and changes in responsiveness of the neuroendocrine and immune systems at maturity.
Similarly, a 2008 study of analgesia in newborns and children[vi] concluded:
“Healthy newborns routinely experience acute pain during blood sampling for metabolic screening, injection of vitamin K or hepatitis vaccine, or circumcision.

Acute pain caused by skin-breaking procedures can lead to physiologic instability and behavioral distress, and it has downstream effects on subsequent pain processing, development and stress responsivity.

Because of these detrimental effects, reduction and prevention of pain are worthy clinical goals that are also expected by most parents.”
In addition to the above, the possible trauma from the injection can also jeopardize the establishment of breastfeeding, which is detrimental to both mother and baby.

ORAL Vitamin K is a Safe, Effective Alternative
Fortunately, the alternative to these barbaric newborn injections is amazingly simple: give the vitamin ORALLY. It is safe and equally effective, minus the troubling side effects.
Oral vitamin K is absorbed less efficiently than vitamin K that is injected. However, this can easily be compensated for by adjusting the dose. And since vitamin K is nontoxic, there is no danger of a bad reaction.
If you are breastfeeding, which I hope you are, your baby can be given several low oral doses of liquid vitamin K1 and receive the same protection from Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn as he would receive from an injection.
Ultimately, you should consult your pediatrician about the dose that is appropriate for your baby.
However, midwife Ronnie Falcao uses the guidelines formulated by an international committee of physicians called the Cochrane Collaboration. They have determined the following dosing schedule, which results in very similar rates of protection from HDN[vii]:
  • 1 milligram liquid vitamin K weekly, OR
  • 0.25 milligram liquid vitamin K daily
In the future, research is needed to better pinpoint guidelines about the oral vitamin K dosing for newborns. However, remember that there have been no adverse effects observed in adults or babies who receive vitamin K doses much higher than what is actually required. And the dose given orally will be far less than the megadose given by injection!
So for now, there is no danger in overshooting the mark somewhat to make sure your baby is adequately protected until precise dosing guidelines are made available by science.
You can also increase your infant’s vitamin K levels naturally if you are breastfeeding by increasing your own vitamin K levels.
The milk of lactating women has been tested, and most is low in vitamin K because the women themselves are vitamin K deficient. If women take vitamin K supplements, then their milk becomes much richer in vitamin K, as you would expect.
According to Dr. Vermeer, mothers who are adequately supplementing themselves with vitamin K AND are breastfeeding should not need to give their infants additional K supplements.
But you must be cautious here that your vitamin K levels are optimal, and for most women, the vitamin K absorbed from foods won’t be enough, so a supplement might be needed.

What You Need to do BEFORE Your Baby is Born
Ultimately, the choice about whether or not to consent for your baby to be given a vitamin K shot is yours. At least now you have the information with which you can make an informed decision.
How do you want your baby’s first few moments of life to be?
There are plenty of unavoidable pains that you can’t prevent, no matter how much you might want to shield your child from all pain and suffering. Why not eliminate one source of pain that is 100 percent unnecessary and under your control?
If you choose to not expose your child to vitamin K1 as a shot and would prefer to have it given orally, you will have to make it VERY clear to not only your OB physician but also ALL the nursing staff, as they would be the ones that actually administer the shot.
During the excitement of the delivery it will be very difficult to remember that your baby was not supposed to have the shot. So it would also be helpful to have someone like your spouse at the delivery reminding them that your child should NOT get the shot.
While you are doing that, you might also want to review the wisdom of administering the hepatitis B vaccine on that day.  It is routinely administered to all babies and the parents are rarely asked, it is just done. You can review what I have previously written about thisdangerous vaccine.
Please remember, YOU will have to exercise extreme diligence in making your wishes known. The system will fight you tooth and nail as they sincerely believe they know better than you.
It is so worth it though to take the extra steps to protect your newborn. I would strongly encourage you to make the additional effort.
REFERENCES:


[i] American Academy of Pediatrics Vitamin K Ad Hoc Task Force, “Controversies concerning vitamin K and the newborn,” Pediatrics. 1993 May;91(5):1001-3http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/5/1001
[ii] “Newborn vitamin K injections,” Giving Birth Naturally,http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/newborn-vitamin-k.html
[iii] Chamberlain D. “Babies don’t feel pain: A century of denial in medicine,”http://www.terrylarimore.com/BabiesAndPain.html
[iv] Science Daily, “Infant pain may have long-term effects,” August 16, 1999http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990816065623.htm
[v] Giboney Page G. “Are there long-term consequences of pain in newborn or very young infants?” J Perinat Educ. 2004 Summer; 13(3): 10-17http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595204/
[vi] Anand KJS. “Analgesia for skin-breaking procedures in newborns and children: What works best?” CMAJ. 2008 July 1;179(1):11-12http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/pmc/articles/PMC2464482/
[vii] Falcao R. “Vitamin K injection or oral administration,”http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/vitKvgf.html 

My Vitamin K story:
When my last daughter was born, I had JUST learned that Vitamin K was even an issue to be weighed.  Before that I knew nothing about it.  My twins MUST have had it, but I didn't see it because they were whisked away to the NICU so fast.  With Baby Girl, I did see it.  I watched them do it, and let it happen, even though my mommy instinct was screaming to stop them.  I stared at them the whole time...like I was watching a horror movie I couldn't turn away from.  When it was done, they handed her back to me, and life continued on.  She DID get severe jaundice, and I don't know if it was caused by that shot, if it was the immediate clamping of her cord, or a combination of both...or neither.  I just know that if I was to ever have another child, they're being born at home, and there will be no synthetic Vit. K in their little body.

For more information:Linda Folden Palmer, DC: "Vitamin K At Birth: To Inject Or Not"


Why I Let My Baby Cry


How could anyone say this is manipulation?!

"I don't want a spoiled baby, so when she cries for me in the night, I leave her until she's fallen back to sleep.  I wouldn't want her to think that every time she makes a fuss, I'm going to come running to her side.  I did that with my first child, and he's a spoiled brat.  I'm not going to make that mistake again!  Plus, my parents used the CIO method with me, and I turned out okay.  I don't care what "science" says, I'm doing it.  I need my sleep.  If I don't sleep, I'm not happy.  And a happy mommy makes a happy baby.  And when she's older, like 17 months, she CAN manipulate me, and I don't want her always thinking she's going to get her way.  Sorry, but that's the truth.  And by the time she's two, she'll be happy to go to bed, because she regulated her own sleep schedule...and she can soothe herself without me having to go in and hold her, or rock her.  I hate holding my kids while they fall asleep, and all of this "needing me" is too much.  I need time for myself too, you know.  People that tell me that her CIO is going to "damage" her are only judging me.  No one has the right to tell me how to parent my own kids.  They're MINE, and I'm going to do what I like to them."


Are you freaking kidding me?????  Seriously, it's enough to make me gag.  If you don't think your child is going to need you during the night/when you're making dinner/when you're watching a movie...you're freakin wrong.  If it's inconvenient for you to stop, pick up your child, and actually give them the love they need and crave, DON'T BREED.  GET A FISH.

I'm telling you, there are a few things that really piss me off, and hearing the excuses from moms who make their child CIO is just one of the things that push me right over the edge.  Children NEED our love.  They NEED us to pick them up, hold them, make them feel safe and secure, and help them soothe themselves.  Our children deserve to be treated as well as we want to be treated ourselves, or how we would treat our best friend.  

I'm no expert, but I would think that if those women were put in a room crying, left there and ignored, they probably wouldn't appreciate it.  I think they'd be especially irritated if someone then decided to say that their genuine tears were a tool of manipulation...just one more reason not to "cave in" to them...that showing compassion for their feelings would then "spoil" them.


And what if they couldn't talk?  What if they couldn't say "I'm hot/hungry/afraid", or "I can't sleep and I just want to be near you?"  If all they had were their cries, would it be wrong to ignore them because going to them was inconvenient, or someone was afraid it would mean they were "letting them have their way all the time"??  Of course it would be!  And I'm no expert, but if a friend treated me that way, they'd be gone...out of my life.  I wouldn't want a friend like that!!!  I would also not want to have that person as a friend, I don't think many people would.  I think that person would find themselves alone.  (Perhaps crying in the dark?)  That would be sad.

These children are our future.  They deserve BETTER than we had.  They deserve to benefit from all of our knew knowledge, to be allowed to cry when they need us, and for those cries to be answered by the loving person they have grown to trust.  We don't get to go back and change the way we did things.  That's a fact.  But we can change the way we do things from this moment on.  There's always room for improvement, always room for growth.  Even if you have let your child(ren) CIO in the past, you don't have to let it keep happening.  Parent with your heart, and it won't even be an option.


Where I have always stood on this:

I have had 3 children, the first two came together, and never once have I forced any of my children to CIO.  When they cry, I cannot ignore them.  The instinct I have to go to them is so strong that once, when the twins were babies, my husband warned my FIL to get out of my way if the twins started crying, for fear he'd lose a limb if it was in my path as I ran to them.  I had no science telling me it was damaging.  I only let my heart lead the way.  


Don't ignore your instincts to love, protect, hold, and soothe your baby whenever they need it.


More links to information about CIO methods: