MINNESOTA — An autopsy report from Minnesota determined that a newborn died of vitamin K deficiency bleeding and noted that the baby did not receive vitamin K as part of preventive care after birth. The report is among hundreds of records reviewed in an examination of infant deaths linked to the absence of the standard vitamin K shot given at birth.

Babies need vitamin K to help their blood clot, but they are not born with enough of it in their system. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended the vitamin K shot for newborns more than 60 years ago, and the injection has been a standard intervention for newborns in the U.S. since that recommendation. In 1943, two researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering vitamin K and its ability to form clots and stop bleeding in babies.

Autopsy reports obtained through public records requests often list vitamin K deficiency as the immediate cause of death or a contributing factor and note that vitamin K was not received as preventive care after birth. In most of the reviewed cases, the death could have been prevented with a shot of vitamin K at birth.

A national study of more than 5 million births found that the rate of babies not receiving vitamin K rose 77% from 2017 to 2024. Newborns who do not receive the vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely than those who do to develop late vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Fewer than a dozen deaths annually are directly attributed to vitamin K deficiency bleeding, while hundreds of babies die every year from spontaneous bleeding in the brain. State and federal agencies do not track which babies do not receive the vitamin K shot and which babies suffer bleeds or die.

Some autopsy reports contained a section titled "Evidence of Medical Intervention," describing that doctors inserted tubes into babies' airways, connected them to IVs, and ordered blood transfusions. Names of babies, dates or years of death, and locations within a state were redacted from the autopsy reports to protect families' privacy.

The vitamin K shot is not a vaccine. Information online about the shot includes false and misleading claims that it is harmful. Some parents have refused the injection because they desire a more natural birthing experience without pharmaceutical intervention, and others have refused because they do not want their babies to experience pain from an injection they do not believe is necessary.

The reporting included analysis of hundreds of rows of data, contact with more than 50 hospitals and birthing centers, and nearly 90 public records requests filed to report on babies dying from vitamin K deficiency bleeding.