Ive not been told anything about this? what is it?

I still don't know what to do.

It's largely the thought of this kind of *injection* at that time - like chaos says.
Then I start thinking - why do they need it.

It's more a preventative thing than anything else. There is a very small small chance a baby could get VKDB (Vitamin K deficiency bleeding) that could affect the brain and can lead to death.

Babies are born deficient in Vitamin K, This helps to clot blood. However, now a days if you bottle feed, formula is fortified with vitamin K and if you breast feed, colostrum is high in vitamin K.

It is more important for boys who are going to be circumcised to have it, because as mentioned, Vitamin K helps blood clot.

There are side effects of vitamin K (but as always, everyone's body is different, some babies will get these, some will not) also there are some questionable ingredients in the actual injection, unfortunately it does not just contain "vitamin K". If you google "Vitamin K ingredients" you can research it for your self, there are a few brands that are made different ways and contain different things so it would be too much to put here.

If you're worried about any of the injections/vaccinations, an awesome book I really recommend is "The Vaccination Book" by Dr Sears.

It's not pro or against the injections, but it gives facts fairly. It provides what the vaccination is, what it treats, information on that disease (how common etc) how the vacc is made, what it contains and information on the actual ingredients. It lists pros and cons and at the end it gives you and "alternative schedule", where the baby still gets all the vaccinations, its just more spread out, rather than for example, 6 at once.

Plus researching passes these last LONNNNNG weeks haha.

If after doing some research you're still unsure, have a talk with your pediatrician, they can advise you medically

Edit: I'm not sure about back home in England, but over here in the USA, they also give a Heb B vaccination at birth. Seeing as my baby isn't going to engage in any sexual activity's on street corners with in hours of birth, we're refusing that also. I had to have the set of Heb B vaccinations when I worked in care, those buggers HURT!!

My birth plan re the baby lists the following:

Please do NOT administer to the baby:
Hepatitis B vaccine
Vitamin K
Antibiotic eye treatment
Sugar water
Formula

Thanks everyone for your replies. I plan to chat to my MW about it when i next see her and I think I'm going to write on the birth plan for the oral dose instead. It was this website that has swung it for me i think:
http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/...vitamin-k.html

Although having said that if my MW suggests otherwise i may reconsider. The difficulty is, there are pros and cons depending on what/where you're reading.

Ps in the Uk, do we get the Hep B injection??? I don't remember reading about that one???

I just found this: http://www.immunisation.nhs.uk/Immunisation_Schedule

It's the UK vaccination schedule. At birth they give the baby Hep B to "babies who are more likely to come into contact with TB than the general population"
AND TB vaccination to "babies whose mothers are hepatitis B positive"

I'd just double check with the MW this is the only time these are given and that they are not routine.

Other than that it looks like vaccinations start at 2 months.

Isn't it odd that babies (and breastmilk) have evolved not to have vit K but to require dosing with it at birth?

huh? Colostrum is rich in vitamin K ..

But i gather from what I've read that breast milk (not colostrum) doesn't have high levels of Vit K, unless the mother eats a high level in her diet. It is interesting, as surely our bodies are designed to provide exactly what a baby needs? I can't remember where i read it (i've read a lot of sites today!!) but it did talk about exactly that, and queried why for the last however many years we've given Vit K, but for the previous thousands we didn't. But then again, I guess modern medicine has meant that many babies now survive who years ago may have not.

Hee hee - this is all a bit philosophical for me for this time of night!

We'll be giving LO vitamin k via injection.