Murphy’s stellar “Vitamin K” story

As told by her father

I walked out of Interstellar stunned.

I remember thinking to myself “did I just watch the best movie of all time?”, I turned to my wife expecting a similar reaction and asked her what she thought, “I didn’t like it, too long”, and that was that. The movie has that split effect on people.

At work there are six of us that managed to wake up during Covid. We’ve kept each other sane for the last 2.5 years. An island of sanity in the midst of gale force madness. A unique set of friendships and bonds as only a mass formation can create.

The youngest of the group recently had his first child. A beautiful baby girl named Murphy. He too fell in love with Interstellar.

It’s my favourite story of the last 2.5 years for reasons that will be self-evident.

This is her story, as told by her father.

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The first time I was introduced to Vitamin K (VK) was a very brief encounter during a “virtual” (i.e. Zoom) birth class hosted by one of the midwives at Sydney’s RPA Hospital. By the time it was mentioned we were about 6 hours into an 8 hour single day session that I still view as a complete waste of time. At hour 6 we were completely disconnected and ready to pretend our laptop was about to die.

The second time, and where it really ramped up, was at a one on one meeting with our midwife at about 36 weeks where the midwife we were assigned asked me and my partner whether we were happy for them to administer VK to our baby immediately after birth. Prior to mid-2020 I would describe myself as being asleep with respect to the risks and benefits of vaccinations, fortunately by this stage it was early 2022 and I have well and truly changed my view on the need to self-determine necessity and risk. In the words of the great man Thomas Sowell – “compared to what, show me the evidence”.

As a result, my immediate response was to ask the midwife whether it was necessary and what the risks were. Without blinking an eye the midwife responded that all babies are born VK deficient and as a result they are unable to stop bleeding if anything happens during birth and you need to give them VK to ensure they are safe and don’t die. Pretty scary stuff for soon to be first time parents. In relation to the risks, we were told the only potential risk was that it didn’t work.

Fortunately for me a good friend at work had already gone down the rabbit hole of vaccinations and VK and put me onto Candace Owens video outlining the contents of a VK shot. Suffice to say, the ingredients do not make for pleasant reading.

My partner still struggles with the idea that the medical industry would either lie to us or be wrong for such a long period of time. Add that to the fact that she is risk averse and was terrified that anything may happen (we had a couple of miscarriages within 8 months while trying for a baby) to our beautiful baby girl and basically told me I had to go find proof that it was not needed. While the proof of safety and necessity should sit with the ones who want to inject our babies, and not the other way around, off I went to read research studies and find something to put her mind at ease.

In Australia we have something called the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit which is where Paediatricians report issues that arise in infants. Fortunately for me they had conducted a study between 1993 and 2017 across almost 5 million babies.

https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/5/433.full.pdf

In short, the study found 58 cases of VK deficiency bleeding (only 47 were definite cases) of which the majority occur late stage at an average of 50.9 days later. Of these 47 cases there were just six deaths (out of circa five million babies). Of the six deaths, three received the VK shot. All six of the deaths suffered from intracranial haemorrhaging – which is nearly always fatal in adults for the record – and all the babies who did not receive the VK shot were home births. Put another way, not a single baby across 25 years that were born in hospital and did not receive VK died. My takeaway, not necessary and not worth the risk which my partner begrudgingly accepted albeit with her telling me that I would need to deal with the nurses and doctors which I was of course happy to.

The next time it was brought up was by the same midwife just before contractions started. I told her in no uncertain terms my baby would not be receiving it and that I did not believe it was necessary. She said ok but that the Paediatrician on duty would want to come and talk to me to ensure I had “all the information”.

Fast forward to birth.

Due to some complications the OB had to use vacuum extraction (Ventouse) five times (three is the normal limit) to deliver our baby. As a result she had bleeding under the skin that looked like a fluid sack the size of half a tennis ball on the back of her head.

About three minutes after birth a red shirted Paediatrician entered the room (emotions obviously sky high at this point) and proceeded to ask me why I didn’t want VK administered to which I responded with the findings of the study that supported my view that it was not necessary. The doctor then went on to talk about how they are naturally risk averse and they recommend it for all and that we should really consider as babies are unable to stop bleeding (as if all babies are born haemophiliacs) meaning she could die if we don’t get it. My partner freaked out at this and, to be honest, my confidence was shaken when I looked at the screaming pink and red baby in my partners arms. The doctor said he would return in 10 minutes to chat further.

Ten minutes later he returned, and we did a similar song and dance and then he asked whether we would prefer if it was shot into her mouth rather than into the muscle. I said no. He then turned to my partner and asked whether she felt differently. The weaponizing of fear was real.

About 30 minutes later one of the Paediatric nurses came in to weigh and measure and to tell us that they wanted to keep our baby overnight in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for monitoring. She then proceeding to give me a stern talking to about how it was irresponsible of me to not let them administer VK to my baby. I then provided her the same data and added that the only babies who died had intracranial haemorrhaging which VK wouldn’t have saved them from anyway, she told me I was wrong. We then walked to the NICU, while my partner stayed in the birth suite, and the nurse proceeded to tell the NICU nurses that I had refused VK.

Immediately after admission to the NICU, the Paediatric nurse proceeds to attempt to put a canular in our baby’s hand, failing three times. She then had to prick her little foot three times to get enough blood for testing. A strange thing to do for a baby who apparently is so VK deficient that they cannot coagulate their blood to stop ongoing bleeding.

My partner and I had to go to our private room that we were given due to our baby staying in the NICU and my partner proceeds to tell me she is very concerned and wants the shot. I say no to which my partner gets angry and essentially tells me I am putting our baby in danger.

The final VK chat I had was with the Paediatrician who came to our room before our baby was discharged from the NICU and released to our room. Again, I got a stern talking to about the risks of VK deficiency bleeding but this time she also wanted to talk about why I didn’t want my baby to receive the Hep B shot – a disease that requires either the sharing of needles or sex to transmit – but that is a story for another day.

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I’m reminded of the passage in Mark McDonald’s wonderful book, The United Sates of Fear. This from Chapter 2, aptly titled:

Dereliction of Duty: How Feminized American Men Failed Their Women:

The expression of anxiety is, for women, often a plea for help, a request for the man in her life to step up and take action. When a man remains inert and defers decision-making to the woman, her anxiety worsens, often converting to hysteria and unwanted efforts at control. In other words, much of the time, so-called “controlling” women are simply reacting to a vacuum of male assertiveness in anxious or fearful situations.

Two generations ago, a woman would still turn to her husband and other men to fight threats, protect her and her children, and offer reassurance and security. She could then focus on her own physical and emotional well-being and that of her dependents. Not anymore. Her inability to do this today is largely the fault of men themselves and their acceptance of emasculation.

The first day Murphy’s father came back to the office, and told me the story in detail, my eyes watered up. On the way home they spilled over and when I told my wife at home, it happened again.

There’s something about this story, it has everything for me.

It has an awakening of the father, it has conflict with the mother, it has all the different layers of the medical establishment’s foot soldiers and generals mounting an attack on a recalcitrant man and his family, and it has a father that stood firm against it all.

Lastly, it has an unvaccinated baby girl, Murphy. The first unvaccinated baby I know.

It’s a big deal.