I recently wrote about babies dying from a rare but fatal condition called vitamin K deficiency bleeding. To report the story, I analyzed hundreds of rows of data, contacted more than 50 hospitals and birthing centers, and filed nearly 90 public records requests. But autopsy reports — one record of how these babies died — painted the clearest picture of these tragedies.

I’m sharing some of the most critical lessons I learned from the autopsy reports in hopes of creating a greater awareness of this condition and highlighting what decades of research and interviews with dozens of doctors found: In almost every case, the deaths could have been prevented with a simple shot of vitamin K at birth.

ProPublica is not sharing the babies’ names, the dates or years of death, or the locations within a state to protect the families’ privacy.

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Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth

Babies need vitamin K to help their blood clot, but they aren’t born with enough of it in their system. Two researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1943 for their discovery of vitamin K and its ability to form clots and stop bleeding in babies, and the vitamin K shot has been a standard intervention for newborns in the U.S. since the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended it more than 60 years ago.

But in recent years, parents have started refusing the shot. Although the vitamin K shot is not a vaccine, it has become entangled in the anti-vaccine movement. False and misleading information online has led some parents to believe the shot is harmful. In addition, some parents have voiced a desire for a more natural birthing experience, one without pharmaceutical intervention. And some simply don’t want their babies to go through the pain of an injection that they don’t believe is necessary.

Hospital data and research studies have documented this shift. In December, a national study of more than 5 million........

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