Dr Gillian Paulsen

13/07/2026

A mother walked into a small pediatric ER with her newborn. Blood was oozing from the umbilical cord stump.

The doctor on call, Dr. Jessica Kirk, had 20 years of experience. She usually knows what she's looking at within moments. This time she didn't.

Her medical director had one question. Had the parents declined the vitamin K shot?

They had. Within a very short period of time the baby was cold, his heart racing, his blood pressure dropping. He was bleeding internally. His abdomen went firm from the blood pooling inside it. He started to fade.

This is not a rare story anymore.

The New York Times just published an investigation built on interviews with more than a dozen doctors across the country. Emergency physicians. Neonatologists. Pediatricians. Every one of them described treating brain or belly bleeds in babies who never got their vitamin K shot. At least 12 of those babies died. At least 14 more have permanent brain damage. 📊

I've watched the myths spread online for years. So let's kill them, one at a time.

❌ MYTH: "VKDB is so rare, my baby probably doesn't need it."
✅ TRUTH: It's rare because almost every baby gets the shot. When hospitals in England stopped giving it, bleeding cases came right back.

❌ MYTH: "The risk is only in the first few days."
✅ TRUTH: The danger stays elevated for up to 6 months. Late bleeds hit healthy, thriving babies weeks after birth with zero warning.

❌ MYTH: "The shot causes cancer."
✅ TRUTH: One small study from 1992 in England raised the question. Every larger study done since has found no link.

❌ MYTH: "The preservative in the shot is dangerous."
✅ TRUTH: The amount of benzyl alcohol in that shot is not enough to hurt your baby. Preservative-free versions exist too. Ask for one if it eases your mind.

❌ MYTH: "Breast milk gives my baby enough vitamin K."
✅ TRUTH: Vitamin K barely crosses the placenta and breast milk has very little of it. No amount of leafy greens or supplements for mom changes that math.

❌ MYTH: "It's basically a vaccine, I'll treat it the same way."
✅ TRUTH: It is not a vaccine. It is a clotting nutrient every single baby is born without enough of.

❌ MYTH: "The shot has a black box warning, so it must be dangerous for my baby."
✅ TRUTH: That warning is about rare allergic reactions seen mostly when vitamin K is given intravenously to adults at much higher doses. The newborn shot is a tiny intramuscular dose. Severe reactions in newborns from the IM shot are extraordinarily rare. The AAP still recommends it for every single baby because the risk of bleeding without it is far greater.

❌ MYTH: "It's a one in a million risk."
✅ TRUTH: Federal estimates put it as high as 1 in 60 untreated babies bleeding in the first week alone, that's the upper end of the range. For late bleeds, which strike weeks to months later, one in five of those babies dies. 💔

One shot. Given once. Within hours of birth. That's what stands between your baby and all of this.

Please talk to your pediatrician before you deliver. Ask every question you have.

Then get the shot. ✅

📌 Resources:
CDC on vitamin K deficiency bleeding: https://www.cdc.gov/vitamin-k-deficiency/faq/index.html

AAP policy statement, vitamin K and the newborn: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/3/e2021056036/184832

NYT investigation, July 8, 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/well/live/vitamin-k-shot-bleeding-newborn.html

29/11/2024

Don't forget your whooping cough vaccination after 20 weeks gestation and for partners and close family contacts who are not up to date with their vaccinations.

26/06/2022

30/05/2022

I cannot recommend these classes with Bronwyn enough. The more information you have about life after the delivery of your baby, the better prepared you will be. And Bronwyn is fantastic!

13/12/2021

A reminder to those planning or who are already pregnant that covid vaccination will protect both you and your baby.

“At least 66 pregnant Australians with COVID-19 have needed intensive care in the Delta wave of the pandemic, compared with just one in earlier waves. More than 93 per cent of those patients had not received any COVID-19 vaccine, according to available data.”

Senior doctors at major Melbourne hospitals caring for COVID-19 positive pregnant women, including the Royal Women’s Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Monash Health, say none of the mothers transferred from the COVID-19 maternity ward to intensive care in recent months were fully vaccinated.

21/11/2021

Back in October I shared some data from the UK Obstetrics Surveillance System (UKOSS) which looked at the increased risks of severe COVID disease in women who were pregnant, and increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. That post can be found here 👇🏼

https://www.facebook.com/100044147934160/posts/440302597451334/?d=n

On Friday, the CDC in the USA published a new Mortality and Morbidity Report looking into the risk of stillbirth amongst women with and without COVID-19 at delivery.

The study looked at data from 1,249,634 delivery hospitalisations spanning March 2020-September 2021. They then determined the risk of stillbirth in pregnant women with COVID-19, both in the pre-delta and post-delta periods. Stillbirths were defined as foetal death >20 weeks gestation.

During this period, a total of 8,154 stillbirths were tragically documented. Amongst these:

💥 The rate of stillbirth amongst deliveries without COVID-19 was 0.64%, whereas the rate amongst deliveries with COVID-19 was 1.29%.

Translation: the risk of stillbirth increased 90% when a diagnosis of COVID-19 was involved.

💥 During the pre-delta period (March 2020–June 2021), 6,983 stillbirths were documented, involving 0.64% of deliveries without COVID-19 and 0.98% of deliveries with COVID-19.

Translation: in the pre-Delta period, the risk of stillbirth increased by 47% when a diagnosis of COVID-19 was involved.

💥 During the Delta period (July–September 2021), 1,171 stillbirths were documented, involving 0.63% of deliveries without COVID-19 and 2.70% of deliveries with COVID-19.

Translation: during the Delta period, the risk of stillbirth increased by 400% when a diagnosis of COVID-19 was involved.

We know from previous studies of pregnancies complicated by SARS-CoV-2 infection that placental histopathologic abnormalities have been identified, suggesting that placental hypoperfusion (reduced blood flow) and inflammation might occur with maternal COVID-19 infection https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34425296/

It is clear that further investigation from prospective studies is needed to confirm these findings and to help identify the biologic mechanism for the observed increased risk for stillbirth with maternal COVID-19. The timing and severity of infection, and the contribution of maternal risk factors also needs to be considered.

But with the risk of stillbirth 400% higher in COVID-positive women in the Delta period, these findings do underscore what obstetricians have been championing all year: the absolute importance of COVID-19 prevention strategies, including vaccination before or during pregnancy.

If you are pregnant and you have concerns, please speak to your obstetrician and GP today.

- Sara

CDC Report 👉🏽 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7047e1.htm

21/10/2021

Victoria:

Today we reached the following targets for the eligible population aged > 16+

70% double doses ✅
90% single doses ✅

And when we consider the population aged > 12+

68.2% are double dosed
88.8% are single dosed

And when we consider the entire population > 0+

58.25% are double dosed
75.8% are single dosed

For reference, we have gone ahead of Israel in terms of the number of citizens who have had single doses given. We will shortly pull ahead in terms of double doses too.

But we don’t want to be like Israel. We want to be like Portugal, Malta and UAE. Countries which have vaccinated at much higher rates than Israel and have had much better case figures, hospitalisation rates and ICU admission.

High vaccinations rates not only protect the individual from worse outcomes, they also protect the vulnerable non-immune member of our society who live amongst us.

A recent peer-reviewed study from Sweden has shown that people without immunity against COVID-19 were at considerably lower risk of infection and hospitalisation as the number of family members with immunity from a previous infection or full vaccination increased.

Specifically, the study looked at 1.8 million people spanning 800,000 families, and found that non-immune family members had a 45 to 97 per cent lower risk of infection and hospitalisation, as the number of immune family members increased.

This study really demonstrates exactly why your vaccination matters, and gives hope that in families where members may be too young for vaccination that they will still be afforded some level of protection.

That study can be found here 👇🏼

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2785141

Thank you to every Victorian who has rolled up their sleeves and contributed to our vaccination figures.

And to those who haven’t: it’s never too late to change your mind.

- Sara

19/10/2021

https://vimeo.com/606222671?fbclid=IwAR272oB_410FNq9MV9Nh2TPnJ7Laz16ZQ5ooxGpLJ885J5arwZ6tGSDG8fc

Experts discuss COVID vaccination in pregnancy, breastfeeding, and those planning to be pregnant, dispelling myths and highlighting the global evidence, which has…

18/10/2021

We are so lucky to have a safe and effective vaccine to get us through this pandemic. Look at how well it has been proven to work in the US. Amazing.

For anyone still on the fence about the benefits of vaccination, despite the overwhelming amount of data that shows how vaccines have protected recipients and turned this pandemic into a pandemic of the unvaccinated, the CDC had released important data on its COVID-19 Data Tracker, which tracks COVID-19 hospitalisation and deaths by vaccination status.

The data looks at 16 Health Departments that regularly link their case surveillance to immunisation status, and represent 30% of the total US population. These include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Washington, Utah and Wisconsin.

The data as pertains to hospitalisations shows the following:

💥 For all adults aged 18 years and older, the cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalisation rate was about 12-times higher in unvaccinated persons.

💥 The cumulative rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations in unvaccinated adults ages 18–49 years was about 14-times higher than fully vaccinated adults aged 18–49 years.

💥 The cumulative rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations in unvaccinated adults ages 50–64 years was about 15-times higher than fully vaccinated adults aged 50–64 years.

💥 The cumulative rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations in unvaccinated adults ages 65 years and older was about 9-times higher than fully vaccinated adults ages 65 years and older.

The data as pertains to transmission shows that at the peak of the delta wave in August, an unvaccinated person had a 6.1x greater risk of testing positive to COVID-19 compared to a vaccinated person.

And the data as pertains to deaths shows that at the peak of the delta wave in August, an unvaccinated person had an 11.3x greater risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to vaccinated individuals.

That data can be found here 👇🏼

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/ -by-vaccine-status

And for those who still cry out that ageist anthem ‘it’s only the old that die’, be aware that in the months of August and September 2021, COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for people aged 35-54 across the United States.

That data can be found here 👇🏼

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid19-and-other-leading-causes-of-death-in-the-us/

We keep repeating ourselves because we see the writing on the wall. As doctors, epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, and scientists, we are all making health recommendations based on evidence in front of us. Not TikTok videos or YouTube commentators.

Please get vaccinated. We will keep trying to spread the message, before it’s too late.

- Sara