Do mothers understand the reasons for giving vitamin K to their newborn babies?

Late-onset vitamin K deficiency bleeding has serious implications for newborn infants. This service evaluation project assesses current provision of information regarding prophylactic vitamin K and the level of maternal understanding of the reasons for giving it. New mothers were interviewed about their knowledge of vitamin K. Although 97% of mothers had heard of it, only 28% actually understood the purpose of vitamin K prophylaxis. There are a number of sources of information about vitamin K available to expectant mothers but the information sharing process fails to achieve sufficient knowledge to enable informed consent. There is a need to improve information sharing tools during the antenatal or post-labour period.

Victoria Stokes
MBChB, BSc (Hons)
University of Manchester

Anthony Emmerson
MBChB, MD, FRCP, FRCPCH
Consultant Neonatologist
St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester

Arindam Mukherjee
MBBS, DCH, MRCPCH, MRCP (Ireland)
Consultant Neonatologist,
St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester
arindam.mukherjee@mft.nhs.ukM/p>

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Keywords

vitamin K;; VKDB;; neonate;; prophylaxis;; compliance;; effectiveness; ; informed consent

Also published in Infant:

VOLUME 17/ISSUE 2, MARCH 2021

Consideration of care in a preterm neonate with an extremely rare skeletal dysplasia

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